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Hand-Book of 



flpkansas, • • • 
fllabania, • • • 
South Carolina, 
Virginia. 



• • • • 



UJith Illustrations. 



PRDCEEniN&S 



OF THE 



(criYeriLierL of Q^outheru MG^^erncrs. 



HELD IN THE 



CITY OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, 



ON 



April 12th and 13th, IBB 3 



WITH PAPERS PREPARED BY THE GOVERNORS OF ARKANSAS. 

ALABAMA. SOUTH CAROLINA AND VIRGINIA, IN 

REGARD TO THE PHYSICAL RESOURCES 

OF THEIR RESPECTIVE STATES. 



RICHMOND: 

c. N. \villia:^is, printer. 
iS93. 



.C7g 



By Transfsr 
Qeological Surrey 

MAR 16 1931 






dorLYentiori of Southern Sovernors. 



This Convention met in the Senate Chamber in the Capitol 
building in Richmond city at 12 o'clock M. on Wednesday, 
April 12, 1893. 

Present — Governor W. M. Fishback, of Arkansas ; 
Thomas G. Jones, of Alabama ; 
Murphy J. Foster, of Louisiana ; 
William J. Stone, of Missouri ; 
Frank Brown, of Mar34and ; 
Elias Carr, of-^ North Carolina ; 
B. R. Tillman, of South Carolina; 
P. W. McKiNNEY, of Virginia. 

Rev. W. James Nelson, president of the Baptist Female 
Institute, of Richmond city, Va., opened the session with 
prayer. 

Governor McKinney, of Virginia, tendered a welcome to 
the visiting Governors and others who came to participate 
in the conference. 

Governor Fishback, of Arkansas, was elected President 
of the Convention. 

J. Bell Bigger, Clerk of the House of Delegates and 
Keeper of the Rolls of Virginia, was chosen Secretary, and 
William Wilson, who is Custodian of the Archives of the 
Virginia Senate, was selected as Sergeant-at-Arms. 



4 PROCEEDINGS. 

Accredited representatives were present as tollo-ws ; 
From the State of Alabama : Hon. H. D. Lane, Commis- 
sioner of Agriculture. 

From the State of Louisiana: J. G. Hawkes, Commis- 
sioner of Immigration ; Col. J. W. Nicholson, president 
Louisiana Universit}- and Agricultural and Mechanical Col- 
lege and president Louisiana State Educational Associa- 
tion : H. H. Hargrove, Local Superintendent of Education 
and representative of the press ; John Dymond, president 
Louisiana State Agricultural Society and president Louisiana 
Sugar Planters Association. 

From Mississippi : E. P. Skene. 

From Georgia: John O. Waddell, president State Agri- 
cultural Society ; Alexander R. Piper, second lieutenant 
Second Infantrv, United States Army. 

From South Carolina: J. S. Newman, acting president 
Chemson Agricultural College and director State Experi- 
ment Station, Fort Hill. 

From Tennessee : George H. Armistead and Hon. Robert 
Gates. 

From West Virginia : Dr. John A. Myers, Col. E. C. Best, 
Capt. W. R. Johnson, Hon. C. H. Knott, Hon. Evan Powell, 
Maj. W. N. Page, C. F. Moore, Maj. J. C. i\lderson. 

From Virginia : Thomas Whitehead, Commissioner ot' 
Agriculture, and W. T. Sutherlin, president Board of Agri- 
culture. 

The following resolutions \^'ere agreed to by the Conven- 
tion : 

/. J^csoJvccU That the Governors of the several Southern 
States be requested to have a paper prepared which he can 
endorse and to which he will attach his official signature, 



PROCEEDINGS. ^ 

?>uccinctlv ( not exceeding six thousand words ) setting torth 
facts in relation to the social condition, rehgion, education, 
and physical resources of his State, and that these papers 
be prepared on or before the first day of June, and when 
prepared thev be forwarded to the Secretary of this Con- 
A-ention to be published in pamphlet form tor distribution at 
the World's Fair at Chicago. 

3. Resolved, That on or before the first day of June the 
Secretary of this Convention be directed to advertise for 
bids for printing such of these papers as may have been lor- 
warded to him, and that when he shall have ascertained the 
cost he shall notit\' each Governor w^ho may have contributed 
'a paper and assess each State with an equal share ot the 
expense and furnish each such State with an equal number 
of the pamphlets when printed. 

J. Resolved, That the Boards of Trade or Chambers 
of Commerce of the several Southern States which are 
interested be requested to supplement this effort of the States 
bv having the articles in relation to their respective Com- 
monwealths published in some of the leading periodicals of 
the North, in order that they may reach that large class of 
home-seekers who will not attend the World's Fair. 

The Convention agreed to the recommendations contained 
in the following paper : 

In order that the work now and here begun looking to ' 
more extensive immigration to the several Southern States 
it is recommended — 

I. That the Governors of the several States appoint seve- 
ral persons — one to investigate carefully each of the tollow- 



6 PROCEEDINGS. 

ing subjects in its relations to the subject of immigration to 
that State : 

Direct Trade ; 

Manufacturing ; 

Labor and Employment ; 

Mining ; 

Climatology and Health ; 

Advertising ; 

Manufacturing ; 

And these persons in each State, acting under the direction 
of the Governor of that State, shall co-operate with him in 
such immigration work as he may direct. 

2. That for the purpose of general co-operative immigra- 
tion work in all the Southern States, the persons appointed 
as provided for above in the several States to investigate 
each of the several subjects named shall constitute a co-ope- 
rative committee on each subject for the several States, and 
publish such reports on these special subjects as may be 
hereafter agreed upon and provided for by the Governors of 
the several States co-operating or other accredited represen- 
tatives of these States. 

The Convention agreed to the following address : 

The Governors of the States of Maryland, Virginia, West 
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, 
Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and 
Missouri, assembled in Convention at the city of Richmond, 
Va., on April 12, 1893, for the sole purpose of advancing by 
co-operation and concert of action the industrial interests 
and well-being of their several States, do issue the following 
address to the people of the United States and those of 
Europe who may contemplate making investments in this 
country or immigrating here in search of homes : 



PROCEEDINGS. 



ADDRESS. 



The States represented at this convention comprise sub- 
stantially the southern half of the x\merican Republic. The 
territorial area of these States is 850,560 square miles. The 
population as shown by the census of 1890 is 22,249,279. 
Its eastern and southern exterior limits are bounded by the 
Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. The interior is tra- 
versed by many of the most important rivers on the continent 
and by some of the greatest in the world. The surface is 
diversified by mountain chains and beautiful valleys, by long 
stretches of fertile bottom lands, and broad expanse of pic- 
turesque and productive prairies. The climate is temperate, 
changing more or less with the seasons, and is pleasant, in- 
vigorating, and healthful. The resources of this vast area, 
distributed with a wonderful and surprising equality, and its 
adaptation to natural and to industrial productions is almost 
limitless. 

MINERALS. 

All, or nearly all, these States have inexhaustible deposits 
of coal, mostly bituminous, which can be mined less expen- 
sively, perhaps, than elsewhere in the world. In every sec- 
tion of the area embraced by these States are enormous and 
immeasurable supplies of iron, lead, zinc, and other metals 
useful in the industrial arts. Multiplied thousands are already 
engaged in mining and reducing these metals. The value of 
these mines and mineral deposits have already long since 
passed the period of experimentation, and 3'et the}- are in the 
very infancy of their development. 

FORESTRY. 

Scattered throughout these States are also great areas of 
forest lands, on which are growing in superabundance as fine 



PROCEEDINGS. 



timber as can be found in the world — cypress, oak, walnut, 
ash, maple, pine, and the like — fit in the highest degree for 
ship-building, house-building, and for all the uses of manu- 



facturing. 



AGRICULTURE. 



The soil and climate unite to give to these States unsur- 
passed adoption and capacity for the productions of agri- 
culture. Tobacco, cotton, sugar, Indian corn, wheat, rA'e, 
barley, oats — all the cereals — are grown here in profuse 
abundance. Nowhere in the world does the earth yield a 
more prompt, certain, and abundant return to the vitalizing 
touch of the husbandman than in these Commonwealths. 

HORTICULTURE, ETC. 

Much may be said likewise of horticulture. Nowhere 
can richer or sweeter fruits — such as oranges, bananas, 
apples, peaches, plums, grapes, and berries — be grown in 
greater profusion, Alreadv are to be found here very many 
of the most extensive and profitable orchards, vineyards, 
and gardens on the globe. 

SUCH THE CONDITIONS. 

Such in brief are the climatic and topographical condi- 
tions and such the natural and productive advantages of 
these great States of the South and Southwest. Hitherto 
immigration and capital have flowed towards the Western 
and Northwestern States. This was due, no doubt, largely 
to the fact that those were new States, whose immigrants 
could find free homes b}^ right of settlement on the public 
lands of the United States, and due partly, it may be, to the 
fact that most of the States represented in this convention 
were the theatre of war during the struggle between the 
States and were interrupted in their progress by the some- 



PROCEEDINGS. 9 

w hat turbulent conditions immediately tbllowing the cessa- 
tion of hostilities incident to the so-called period of recon- 
struction. But happih- all these disadvantages are now at 
an end. The desirable public lands of the Northwest are 
practically absorbed : they have been taken up. 

HAVE DISAPPEARED. 

Long since the old disturbing forces that prevailed in the 
South and menaced its well-being have disappeared. It has 
begun a new era of progress and prosperity. The tide of 
immigration has been directed southward and is pouring in 
upon us in a steady and augmenting stream. Peace is 
smiling- everywhere and is striving to win her victories, no 
less renowned than those of war. x\t this auspicious period 
in Southern history the Governors of the States here repre- 
sented have met to give the world assurance of their protound 
gratification that this new and brighter day has dawned 
upon their States, and, if possible, to accelerate the move- 
ment which is now so soon to develop the wonderful resources 
and wealth of the Southern States. 

ANXIOUS TO HAVE IMMIGRANTS. 

The}- are anxious to have immigrants to settle among 
them ; thev are anxious to have capital, make investments, 
and develop enterprises. To the worthy immigrant the}' 
extend the hand of welcome, with the assurance that he will 
tind an educated, warm-hearted, hospitable, progressive 
people among whom he can live in amity and peace, without 
regard to his religion, his politics, or his nativity. Churches 
and school-houses are everywhere. Although these tacili- 
ties for worship and education are already established upon 
a most liberal scale, they are constantly and rapidly increas- 
ing. The social, moral and religious life of the people of 
these States is upon a high plane. 



lO PROCEEDINGS. 

INDUCEMENTS TO CAPITALISTS. 

To the capitalist these States offer special inducements 
for investments. The laws are favorable to the investor, 
and public order and private right are firmly upheld and 
maintained. Nowhere in the world are there such golden 
opportunities for investment in mining and manufacturing 
enterprises. Fuel, water, wood, metal, cane, cotton, tobacco, 
hemp, flax — all here together, one waiting to serve the other,, 
almost without the cost of transportation. 

BOUNDING FORWARD. 

The South is bounding forward now. It is the field in 
which the immediate future will unfold the most marvellous 
development of the centurv. Here new homes are to grow, 
like spring flowers coming up out of the " winter of our dis- 
content," and are to multiph' with increasing rapidity as the 
years go by. Here capital is to find its most tempting and 
profitable field for investment. 

A CORDIAL INVITATION. 

The Governors of the States named, in behalf of their 
several constituencies, extend a cordial and pressing invita- 
tion to home-seekers — farmer, mechanic, miner, workman — 
to come and cast their fortunes with the South ; as they do 
also a similar invitation to capitalists, whether in the United 
States or elsewhere, to examine our resources and to aid us 
in their development to the end that they may participate in 
our prosperity. 

With a view to setting forth the resources of the several 
States more in detail, it is proposed that the Go\ernors of 
the States here represented prepare brief addresses showing 
the peculiar and special advantages of their respective States,, 
to be published with this address for general distribution. 



PAPER PREPARED BY 



W. M. F'I^HBACK, 



G(^vef^(i)f (i)f Ark&^0&^. 



ARKANSAS, 



ITS LOCATION, RESOURCES, ADVANTAGES. NEEDS AND 

DESCRIPTION. 



Under the genial and health-giving climate of our State, 
and in the face of almost every species of political obstacle, 
there has grown up in Arkansas a religious and social con- 
dition not inferior to that of anv other State in the Union. 



RELIGION. 



We have in Arkansas some 3,500 churches, or one to every 
322 inhabitants, over one-half of which have been erected 
within the past ten 3^ears. 

Ten years ago the Methodist Episcopal Church South had 
about 525 churches, valued at nearlv $300,000, and ninetv- 
six parsonages, valued at $45,000. Now they have 1,033 
churches and 195 parsonages, valued in the aggregate at 
about $1,000,000: and during the same decade thev have 
erected educational buildings valued at about $200,000. 

The colored Methodists have 173 churches and 27,956 
members. Their church property is valued at $233,425. 

The Baptist denomination is conceded to be the largest in 
the State, having i ,772 churches and 99,499 members, white 
and black. 



H 



ARKANSAS. 



The colored Baptists have 558 churches and 37,402 mem- 
bers, but I have no other statistics concerning them. 
We have in all twent3'-nine denominations. 

EDUCATION. 

Our educational advancement within the past ten years 
has been at an unparalleled pace. The school enrollment 
of our youth has increased at a rate of percentage from two 
to fifty times as great as that of any other State admitted 
into the Union at the time or prior to the time of our own 
admission. 

We have 3,000 schoolhouses, or one to every 375 inhabi- 
tants, 1,547 of which have been erected within the past ten 
years. 

We have one college or seminary for every 22,000 inhabi- 
tants, over two-thirds of which have been erected within the 
past decade. 

A State university and three normal schools afford free 
education of a higher order. Two-fifths of our State tax and 
half of our county taxes support our public schools. We 
have in the negro districts about 900 separate schools for the 
colored people. Several of their schoolhouses cost from 
$10,000 to $20,000 each. They also have several colleges, 
and the State supports one normal school for colored teachers. 

About two years ago Hon. F. P. Laws opened at his own 
expense, in the village of Beebe, a free Bible school, which 
has constantly grown in interest under the management of 
Mrs. Julia A. Clark, until it now has a membership of 235 
and an average daily attendance of thirty-five. I know of 
no other such institution in the world. The good it is accom- 
plishing should awaken general interest and general inquiry 
throughout Christendom. 

SYSTEM OF LAWS. 

It were enough, perhaps, to say of our system of laws that 



ARKANSAS, 1 5 

two years ago the Congress, controlled by a political party 
not in sympathy with a majority of our people, selected from 
the statutes of Arkansas the entire body of laws by which 
one of the Territories of the Union is governed. 

I am very much in doubt if there is a community in the 
world of equal population where the laws are more gene- 
rally enforced and obeyed than in this State. 

The carrving of concealed weapons is in Arkansas a 
crime, and the officers of the law are themselves liable to 
prosecution if they fail to prosecute offenders against this 
statute. 

TEMPERANCE. 

Our temperance laws are said by competent judges to be 
in advance of those of any other State, because, being the 
result of evolution, growing by degrees and taking hold of 
one community at a time as public sentiment in that com- 
munity is educated up to an appreciation of their importance, 
the laws upon this subject are easily and completely enforced. 

In every county the people vote at each biennial election 
for or against license, and even when the counties vote for 
license, a majority of the male and female adults in any 
neighborhood may vote it away from within three miles of 
any church or schoolhouse by petition to the county author- 
ities. 

Under this process of evolution, and with the aid of female 
votes or petitions, we have gradually driven license out of 
some thirty-five of the seventy-five counties, and away from 
more than 2,000 churches and schoolhouses. 

Animated by such religious surroundings, enlightened by 
such educational facilities, and protected by such a system 
of laws, our people enjoy exceptional safety, both of life and 
property. 

COLORED PEOPLE. , 

The colored race are found in numbers only in about a 



1 6 ARKANSAS, 

third of the State. I traveled last summer 300 miles in the 
State and did not see half a dozen negroes along the entire 
route. 

The race problem is here no longer a problem. Matters 
have adjusted themselves in accordance with common sense. 
The Australian ballot has eliminated all danger from igno- 
rance, and the free public school system is fast educating 
the negro in the duties of citizenship. The Christian doc- 
trine of the universal brotherhood of man has thrown around 
him the mantle of protection in all his rights, both as a man 
and as a citizen. He stands before our law the equal of all 
other men : vet he has at last accepted the doctrine that the 
white man ought and will rule this country. The white 
people of Arkansas pay nearh' the entire tax which sup- 
ports our public schools : vet, in addition to educating their 
own children, the recent census shows that we are educating 
a larger percentage of the negro children of the State than 
New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, , and even cultured Massachu- 
setts are educating of their own children, who are bone of 
their bone and flesh of their flesh. Vol. I, No. 11, pages 5 
and 7. 

CLIMATE. 

Our climate is proverbialh' genial and healthy in the 
greater part of the State. Our death rate is much smaller 
than in most of the Northern States, while ovu" birth rate is 
nearly double that of most of our sister States of the North. 
The surgeon-general of the United States army reports, I 
am informed, the death rate of troops stationed in Arkansas 
less than at nn\ place in the United States. 

The climate of Arkansas is so favorable to both animal 
and vegetable life that the census of 1880 (I have no access 
to that of 1890 yet) shows the money value per acre of her 
farm products to be greater than that of any other State in 
the Union except Louisiana. In one portion of the State 



ARKANSAS. 1 7 

the apple attains a perfection that has not yet been found 
anywhere else in the United States. They have excelled 
wherever displaved in competition. 

A commissioner sent out by the Patent Office in 1859 ^'^~ 
ported to the Government that Arkansas is so well adapted 
to the culture of grape that the rocky hillsides of the State, 
if planted to the vine, would prove more valuable than our 
best cotton lands. He said also that wine made from one 
species of our native grapes had been taken to England and 
pronounced equal to the best foreign wines. 

But the other dav the Agricultural Department of the 
United States reports the sorghum of x\rkansas the best in 
the United States. 

But I beg to leave the agricultural and horticultural re- 
sources of Arkansas to Hon. W. G. Vincenheller, extracts 
from whose paper upon these subjects are here appended : 

•'Within the limits of our State, from the Mississippi river 
to the Indian Territory line and from Louisiana to Missouri, 
the difference of altitude between the alluvial bottom lands 
and the highlands of the Ozark mountains produces all the 
climatic and other characteristics often degrees of latitude : 
thus while in the southern part of the State all the varieties 
of semi-tropical fruits and plants may be grown successfully, 
and the great staple 'cotton" is produced of a fineness of 
fibre and superiority of quality not excelled by any other 
cotton State, the leading farm products and staples of the 
Northern States can be easily and profitably grown in all 
other sections of the State. 

■* The great varietv of soils, the rolling surface, the preva- 
lence of springs, creeks and rivers, the equalh' distributed 
rainfall and temperature, all these are advantages to the cul- 
tivator of varieties of crops such as no other State has in 
the same degree. ***** ^ 

•• But so much for the agricultural characteristics of our 
State, which cannot be denied to be great. As an additional 
argument in our favor, we now desire to bring in evidence 



i8 



ARKANSAS. 



some statistics of the Department of Agriculture of the 
United States, in which we find a very favorable showing 
for Arkansas, especially when we take into account that the 
values quoted are obtained, as before stated, without the 
expense of fertilizers, with crude machinery and indifferent 
labor : 

"The average value of farm lands in twelve Southern 
States is $7.04 per acre. 

"The average value of farm lands in Arkansas is $6.16 
or Syi per cent, of the latter. 

" Now when we consider the average values of the crops 
produced in these States, we find that Arkansas shows of 



" CoUon, a value of 


|20 08 


" Corn, a value of .... 


10 07 


" Wheat, a value of 


7 23 


"Oats, a value of . 


7 68 


"Rye, a value of . , 


. • 657 


"Tobacco, a value of . 


50 22 


" Potatoes, a value of 


47 14 



" The latter crop, being planted and harvested in some lo- 
calities twice and even three times a year, increases the value 
considerably. 

HORTICULTURE. 

"The geological formation of Northwestern Arkansas is 
precisely that which is required for the growing of perfect 
and well-flavored fruit of the apple varieties. The best 
apples of the United States and the world grow in localities 
where the carboniferous, sub-carboniferous and the silurian 
rocks make up the composition of the soil, and in North- 
west Arkansas, from the Missouri line southward to the 
Arkansas river, we find these conditions, and have lime- 
stone of the cherty, flinty and cave character in the Ozarks 
that are peculiarly well adapted to the growing and maturing 
of these fine fruits, and have secured to them the premiums 
in all competitions. 



ARKANSAS. 1 9 

"The rock formations especially fitted for the culture of 
the peach are somewhat difterent in character, for peaches 
and other stone-fruits require more iron in the soil, and being 
of a semi-tropical habit need a light, sandy, ferruginous soil 
to mature them to perfection, and this condition is met with 
in Arkansas south of the Arkansas river, in the quartz belt 
of the State, and there it is where the peach thrives and 
flourishes. 

" While the pear is similar in its geological requirements 
to the apple, it thrives best and is more free from disease in 
a well sub-drained sandy loam, and its natural habitat being 
under more temperate conditions than the apple, it will grow 
an3^where in Arkansas where sub-soils are not of an imper- 
vious nature. 

" There is no part of the State where berries and grapes 
are not indigenous, and they can be cultivated successfully 
everywhere with the result of a good yield. There is, there- 
fore, no reason why every home should not be provided with 
the luxury of a grape arbor and a strawberry, raspberry or 
blackberry- patch. 

"The growing of fruits for profit, however, depends 
mainly upon the markets you can reach with your products, 
and it is in this that Arkansas has advantages of no mean 
import, Denver, St. Paul, Kansas City, Lincoln, Sioux City, 
Chicago, St. Louis, even Salt Lake City, being prominent 
among the purchasers of Arkansas apples and small fruits, 
and the larger cities of our neighboring State, Texas, draw 
their supply of fruits of all kinds mainly from the north- 
western part of Arkansas. 

"This advantage has been early recognized by some of 
the more enterprising of our agriculturists, and to such an 
extent has the little beginning of horticultural industry grown 
that, while five years ago only twenty-five crates per day 
were shipped to St. Louis and Western markets, from five 
to ten car-loads are now sent in all directions. 



20 ARKANSAS. 

"The grain and manufactured fruit products of two of the 
northwestern counties amounted last vear to nearly two mil- 
lions of dollars. 

"Texas and the far West are the most ready markets for 
nearh' all the fruit that is raised in the northwestern part, 
and St. Louis, Chicago and the citv of Little Rock are the 
markets for the central and southern parts of the State. 
While the acreage of our fruit is annually increasing, the 
supply has so far neyer been equal to the demand, for we 
are so located that we get our early fruit into the North- 
western markets ahead of any other frviit-growing sections, 
and our late Iruits are especially called for by our sister 
States, Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee. 

" Arkansas apples have carried off the principal prizes in 
the competitiye exhibitions at New Orleans, Louisyille, New 
York, Philadelphia, and Riverside, and stand now at the 
head of the' list and are inquired for e^■er^• where : the peach 
interest also has been growing steadily during the last lew 
years, and has assumed considerable proportions, especially 
where transportation facilities bring markets within a safe 
distance. 

One orchard in Franklin county shipped last year 2,300 
boxes of this fruit to different markets, for which 60 cents to 
:Ti2.6o per box was realized. Those who make peach-grow- 
ing a pursuit in a business way cannot fail to obtain good 
results from their investments, and Arkansas others splendid 
locations and a fine climate for this purpose. 

"The superior advantages which Arkansas has for small 
fruit enterprises has been evidenced not only b}' the work of 
the experiment stations within the State, showing the cli- 
mate, soil, humidit}' — all are found to be favorable here — lout 
the experience of investors in the production of this fruit as 
commercial commodity, has realized everywhere handsome 
dividends. 

"With main arteries of transportation radiating from the 




1-C' 








ARKANSAS. 21 

cities of Little Rock and Fort Smith, east and west, north 
and south, to business centres, distributing points, depots of 
provisions and fields of consumption ; with a constantly 
increasing demand for our early and late luscious fruits, this 
branch of horticulture is a field for investment both lucrative 
and satisfactory. 

''Only one instance need be cited to convince the inquirer 
what is and what may be done in this direction. 

" The Northwestern Fruit Growers Association shipped last 
season bv the refrigerator-car service 10.921 crates of berries 
to Denver, Col., St. Paul, Minn., Kansas City, Mo., Lincoln, 
Neb., and Sioux City, Iowa, the gross sales bringing an av- 
erage of $2,174- per crate, the total amount of receipts being 
$23,763.96, while the expense of this service, together with 
commissions, amounted to $8,563.87, leaving a net profit of 
$15,200.09. 

" " This statement does not take into account the large 
amount of berries shipped per express to nearer markets. 

"Viticulture in Arkansas, where the grape grows wild 
everywhere in man^• distinct varieties, has proven beyond a 
doubt that our State is destined to become the France of 
America. Those who have given them a trial, wdio have 
tested the vintage, are convinced that if properh^ encouraged 
and protected vineyards will return thousandfold to the intel- 
ligent investor. 

"We give an example, the result of 150 acres planted in 
grapes in Franklin county, 100 acres of which were but re- 
cent plantations and not in full bearing — the average yield 
of this grape acreage being 2,500 pounds of the berry, from 
which 9,000 gallons of wine were obtained. 

" In the neighborhood of cities and near market locations 
of course much of the grape crop is shipped in the fruit, but 
as the wine is of superior quality and flavor and increases 
in value with age, vineyards may be planted anywhere with 
profit." 



22 ARKANSAS. 



MINERALS. 



There will be on exhibition from Arkansas at Chicago 
soon, a chunk of cr3^stalized carbonate of zinc ore, having only 
about ten per cent, of waste matter, weighing seven tons. 
It was, together with another similar chunk weighing 64,000 
pounds, or thirty-two tons, broken from a boulder on the 
hillside, which has been cleared off until there has been 
exposed a surface block of 13,000,000 pounds, or 65,000 tons. 

We have, according to recent geological survey, a distri- 
bution of 216 square miles of zinc ore, and overlying it and 
around it we have 2,199 square miles of marble, the same 
as Tennessee marbles. 

We have 2,347 square miles of coal. Ten 3^ears ago we 
mined onlv about 5,000 tons of coal ; in 1889, only 279,000 
from twenty-seven mines. We have now in operation sev- 
enty-eight mines and the output is variously estimated from 
750,000 to 1,250,000 tons annually. 

We have thirteen square miles of granite (building stone), 
305 square miles of novaculite or whetstone rock — famous 
all over the world ; 126 square miles of manganese, not in- 
cluding ores of lower grade ; 7,300 square miles of lime- 
stone, available for lime and building stone; 1,295 square 
miles of pottery clays, 2,140 square miles of clays suitable 
for vitrified brick, and 612 square miles of clay for pressed 
brick of the highest grade. We have also alum shales, the 
outcrop of which is 375 miles in length. We have 200 acres 
of chalk, available for the manufacture of highest grade of 
Portland cement. 

We have 640 acres of bauxite or aluminum ore, and but 
the other day we discovered large deposits of red and yel- 
low ochre. 

We have also inexhaustible beds of gypsum and marl. 

We have the largest hardwood trees yet discovered in the 
world. 



ARKANSAS. 23 

I will conclude by appending extracts from a paper by 
W. S. Thomas : 

"The geographical position and physical conformation of 
Arkansas give it a variety and quality of products which are 
the wonder of all investigators. It is in the same latitude 
where the human family had its birth, where civilization has 
made its greatest advancement in past ages, and where our 
Saviour had His earthly home. Within a space of three hun- 
dred miles, from the southeast to the northwest corner of the 
State, are to be found the climate and other characteristics 
of ten degrees of latitude. The altitude of the southeastern 
part of the State does not exceed 250 feet above tidewater. 
From this point the country rises to the northwest, where on 
the plateau it attains an altitude of 2,500 feet, while the 
mountain peaks reach in the neighborhood of 3,000 feet. 
This altitude gives the State ten degrees of latitude, which 
equals in its agricultvu-al products the space from the Gulf 
of Mexico to the Northern lakes ; as it were, the agricultural 
products of the Northern and Southern States here meet and 
lap over. Our State produces the crops of both sections, 
such as northern cereals and grasses, as well as cotton and 
other semi-tropical vegetation. It is not uncommon to see 
on the same farm wheat, oats, grasses, cotton, and tobacco 
growing. As to the quality and quantity of our products, 
we are so favored with climate and soil that we have but 
few equals and no superiors. Of some of the Northern pro- 
ducts we are able to raise two crops the same season on the 
same land. 

" We grow every textile fibre used in the arts. Our cotton 
has been acknowledged as superior to any other except Sea 
Island, by the awards of money and medals it has received 
at the many competing exhibits where it has been shown, 
and we produce more per hand than any other State. But 
little attention has been given to hemp, flax, jute, ramie and 
kindred fibres, but sufficient to know, if other conditions were 



24 ARKANSAS. 

favorable, they could be grown with proht. It is stated by 
the United States Department of Agriculture, in the report 
on sheep husbandry in the United States, that the wool 
from sheep introduced from other States improves in the 
quality of its fibre and the quantity of the fleece, and that 
the physical condition of the animal is improved if imported 
from the East. 

" As a stock-raising region the capabilities of Arkansas 
have been most sadlv neglected. With the advantages of our 
climate, water, and variety of foods, more attention should 
be given to this important branch of many industries. 
Over a hundred and fifty varieties of native grasses 
are found in the State, and all of the most desirable culti- 
vated grasses of the North do remarkably well, as I have 
proven for the past dozen years on my farm in the central 
part of the State. We have other superior animal foods 
peculiar to the South that outrank in value those before men- 
tioned, Bermuda grass, Japan clover, and cow or stock peas, 
with cotton seed, whether used in its natural state or in the 
form of meal : all these have more nutritious value as flesh 
and butter producers than any food grown north of the 
thirty-seventh parallel. This fact has been demonstrated 
by cattle-feeders who have fed at the same time on corn in 
Kansas, and on cotton-seed meal in Little Rock, marketing 
both herds in the same market. In the northern and west- 
ern part of the State there is a large acreage of countr}' won- 
derfully adapted to sheep-raising, and where the annual cost 
of keeping a sheep in the same condition would be less than 
half the expense in Michigan, Ohio or any other Northern 
State. I have practically investigated this matter, and can 
vouch for the truth of the statement. 

'• With our great variety of foods and other advantages, 
hogs can be raised at less cost than in the corn region of 
the Northwest. 

•'Those who have given the subject attention say no coun- 




l^.'y 



lUELlC SCKOCL, (LuloiLdj FORT SMITH, ARKANSAS 
Cost, $io,coo. 



ARKANSAS. 25 

trv can excel Arkansas in the breeding of horses. Up to 
the present time this industry has received but a small 
amount of the attention its importance demands, but now 
some efforts are being made to introduce improved breeds 
of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, with very satisfactory re- 
sults. 

"As a fruit region this State has been termed by the 
United States Pomologist, ' the seedling ground of America,' 
having produced more valuable seedling apples than any 
other part of the country. Not only have apples made our 
State noted b}^ their excellence, but we rank equally high 
as a grape and berr}' region. 

"In regard to Arkansas as a grape-growing region, a 
volume might be written, and then its advantages remain 
untold. Our climate and soil combined produce a quality 
of fruit that has attracted the attention of vineyardist both 
in this countrv and Europe. Nicholas Longworth, of Ohio, 
father of the wine industry in this country, found growing 
wild in the Arkansas river a variet}^ that he introduced into 
his vineyard, considering it superior to any he had in culti- 
vation for making wine. In our mountain regions grapes 
suitable for the table have been found of such unusual excel- 
lence as to call for a special report from the United States 
Department of Agriculture as early as 1859. 

*' In short, our pears and peaches are unexcelled in size, 
color and flavor. Arkansas produces every variety of fruit 
grown in the temperate zone, and even borders on the semi- 
tropical. At the meeting of the American Pomological So- 
ciety, held in Boston, September 15, 1887, we exhibited 
sixtv-eight new varieties of apples, and were awarded the 
Wilder medal, the highest honor in the gift of the societv. 
At the Cotton Centennial World's Fair, held in New Orleans, 
where 22,000 plates of fruit were on exhibition, Arkansas 
not only received the highest award for the best individual 
apple, but for the largest and best collecdon. California, 



26 ARKANSAS. 

at Riverside, February 7, 1888, the Arkansas exhibit was 
spoken of by the press as the largest and best disphiy of 
apples ever made on the Pacific coast. 

"At the American Institute in New York city, October, 
1890, every premium Arkansas contended for in fruit was 
awarded her, and the State was highly complimented by the 
agricultural press of the city and countr3^ In this connec- 
tion I will say that the most desirable Japan fruits have been 
tested in the central and southern parts and found to thrive 
and produce as well as in their native land, 

"The timbers of Arkansas are her glory, and one of the 
greatest sources of her wealth; she has 129 native species 
of wood, most of them of commercial value. It has been 
stated by competent judges that, if this crop were properl}^ 
harvested and marketed, the proceeds would purchase every 
acre of land in Kansas, Nebraska or the Dakotas at its 
assessed value. 

"Every variety of hickory that grows on this continent is 
found in Arkansas, 

"There were shipped out of the State during the past 
twelve months 560,000,000 feet of yellow pine, and fully as 
much, if not more, of hard woods. Many of our woods are 
in demand for cabinet work ; our pine, cypress, oak, ash, 
etc., are finding a large market in the Northern and North- 
eastern States for the interior finish of buildings, 

" It was acknowledged by the Indiana Lumber Dealers 
Association, lately visiting our State, that Arkansas pro- 
duced the best pine finishing lumber in the world. Indiana 
said this, not Arkansas. Our ash is of such a quality that 
it is in demand over the civilized world for purposes where 
no other timber can be substituted. We have the largest 
oar manufactory in the world, which not only supplies the 
navy of the United States, but also those of England and 
France, the demand being such that the plant requires en- 
largement from time to time. 



ARKANSAS. 27 

"This is but one of the many industries our forests offer 
to the hand of enterprise and skill. A few days ago I was 
shown a collection of thirty varieties of our woods found in 
commercial quantities, finished in their natural state with the 
design of showing their value for interior decoration and 
cabinet work. 

" Before passing the timbers I must refer to the use of our 
sweet gum for the manufacture of wood pulp. It is found 
in all parts of the State, and has little if an}- commercial 
value. 

" I have had it tested for making wood pulp, and it proved 
equal in every respect to the woods used for the same pur- 
pose at the North, while the price is but a small fraction of 

what they cost. 
******** 

" In Sevier county, near the southwest corner of the State, 
is the only locality in the United States east of the Rocky 
mountains where antimony has been found in sufficient quan- 
tity to be of commercial value. Analysis shows the antimo- 
nial ores of Arkansas to be equal to the celebrated ores of 
Borneo, and they are found distributed over a large extent 
of country, reaching from the grass roots to an unknown 
distance, increasing in value with depth. In 1889, about 
$10,000 in value of this ore was shipped to Philadelphia for 
reduction. This mineral, like man}^ others we possess, is 
deprived of cheap transportation, but we expect that will 
soon be supplied, when we shall be able to furnish this metal 

for the many important purposes demanded by the arts. 
******** 

" It is to the unmetallic minerals that Arkansas looks for 
her greatest sources of wealth and prosperity. Her acreage 
of coal is 2,500,000, with a thickness in excess of that shown 
bv any other State, and more varieties than are found in the 
same area on the continent. They range in quality from lig- 
nite to nearly pure anthracite, and are adapted for steaming, 
coking, gas manufacturing and domestic purposes. 



28 ARKANSAS. 

"The older coals are found in the western-central part of 
the State, and are cheaply mined. The lignite commences 
in the centre and widens as the deposit extends south into 
Texas and Louisiana. Owing to our vast woodlands, the 
the lignite or brown coal has little commercial worth at 
present: but when the value of fuel gas is better understood 
this coal will be sought for. Coal mining in this State had 
not assumed commercial importance until within the past 
few vears. In 1892 the output was 739,300 tons, valued at 
$1,212,410. A large per cent, of this coal tound a market 
in Kansas. Louisiana and other neighboring States. On 
account of the variet}^ and qualitv of the coal, this industry- 
bids fair to increase rapidly. 

"Among the minerals that our State has been especially 
favored with is a deposit of soapstone. or steatite, found four- 
teen miles south of Little Rock. It is said to be the only 
localitv of this mineral now known in the Mississippi Valle}'. 

" In Independence and Lawrence counties we have in 
quantitv infusorial earths used for cleansing and polishing 
purposes, which have been tested for their value, but not 
developed. 

" Arkansas is favored with a wonderful variety of ^'aluable 
clays, including every kind used by potters for from com- 
mon salt-glazed stoneware to the tinest Sevres china. It is 
doubttul if there is a spot in the world where, within the 
same space, all the raw materials used in the ceramic art are 
found in such close proximity as in this State. With the 
exception of feldspar, there is not an ingredient lacking that 
enters into the composition of anv of the wares spoken of, 
and nowhere else, to mv knowledge, does the same condi- 
tion exist. 

" In this connection I will call attention to a compara- 
tivelv new mineral closely related to kaolin or china clay — 
bauxite. It was tirst discovered in France, but did not 



ARKANSAS. 



29 



come into use till 1868. It is an oxide of aluminum, and is 
used for producing that metal and alum. Philadelphia, 
Syracuse, Buffalo, and Brooklyn, N. Y., last 3'ear consumed 
about 5.000 tons of this mineral in the manutacture of alum. 
North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas are the 
only States where bauxite has been found in commercial 
quantities. The Arkansas deposits are quite extensiye, of 
excellent quality, and located from ten to thirty miles from 
Little Rock." 

In Logan county petroleum and natural gas are being 
sought, \yith prospects of success, and a natural-gas well 
has been bored near the city of Fort Smith, and tor six years 
it has been burning night and day. 

W. M. FiSHBACK, 

Governor of A rktnisas. 



PAPER PREPARED BY 



THOMA^ 0. JONEJ^, 



G^vGf^(i)r M Alatei^a. 



ALABAMA, 



ITS LOCATION, RESOURCES, ADVANTAGES, NEEDS AND 
DESCRIPTION. 



Alabama invites the immigration of capital, skilled labor 
and enterprise : indeed, of all men who will add to the 
strength and vigor and well-being of the Commonwealth. 

Alabama is a well-equipped State, and has entered with 
greatly encouraging results the race for a position ot leader- 
ship among the Commonwealths of the Union. The least 
flourishing of her institutions are her poorhouses. Not that 
her several counties have failed to make ample public pro- 
vision for this last misfortune of poverty ; but neither the 
very wealthy nor the ver}- poor are numerous in Alabama, 
the comforts of life being well distributed, and the condi- 
tions of earning a livelihood easy beyond the thought of 
men in colder climes. 

A State with more than a million and a half of people 
and a wealth, upon the earth and beneath the earth, em- 
bracing nearlv ever}^ raw product of the United States, 
might be challenged with the inquiry. Why do you not take 
care of your own development? 

Alabama has an area of 52,250 square miles, more than 
Pennsylvania or New York, jet she has less than one-third 
the population of the former and less than one-fourth the 



34 ALABAMA. 

population of the latter. She is, in fact, as a whole sparsely 
populated, one-half her arable lands being as 3'et untouched 
by the plow ; vast stretches of her forests have never heard 
the ring of the woodman's axe ; great areas of her min- 
eral fields are still unexamined and unsurveyed, and the 
wealth of her rivers and her bays has as yet been little 
vexed by fishermen's fleets or the oysterman's intrusion. 
There is wealth to be crarnered and work to do for five mil- 
lion thrifty people. 

Prior to 1880 the State was in a formative period, re- 
organizing the disarrangements of war, and the people 
adapting themselves to new conditions. The problem was 
to live. Yet from the very moment that war's alarms had 
ceased they began, not only the rebuilding of that which 
was overturned, but to build new institutions and develop 
every source of their wealth. By the year 1880 they were 
fairly entered on that career of progress whose results have 
astonished themselves, and now enable them with candor 
and simple statement to invite capital to safe investment, 
skilled labor to remunerative employment, and enterprise to 
an unlimited field for the successful exertion of its activities. 

Taking 1880 as the period when the rebound from the 
disaster of civil war became effective, some facts stand out 
to catch the e3^e and appeal to the reason and interest of 
mankind. 

From then to now tax values have increased from $139,— 
000,000 to $260,000,000. 

The rate of taxation has decreased from 65 cents on the 
$100 to 50 cents on the $100. 

The acreage of cotton, the great money crop of the State, 
has increased from 2,330,000 acres to 2,761,000 acres, and 
the yield from 699,000 bales to 915,000 bales. 

The acreage of corn, the great food crop of the State, has 
increased from 2,056,000 acres to 2,513,000 acres, and the 
product from 29,079,000 bushels to 30,666,000 bushels. 



ALABAMA, 35 

The production of pig iron has increased from 77,000 tons 
per annum to 1,000,000 tons per annum. 

The number of blast furnaces has increased from 15 to 52, 
and the capital invested from $3,000,000 to $16,500,000. 

The output of coal has increased from 340,000 tons to 
6,000,000 tons, and the capital invested from $2,870,000 to 
$9,600,000. 

The railroad mileage has increased from 1,726 miles to 
3,261 miles. 

Saw-mills have increased from a number so small that no 
record was kept to more than 200, with an annvial cut of 
300,000,000 feet. 

The number of public school teachers has increased from 
less than 4,000 to 6,291, while private schools and colleges 
exhibit a similar gratifying rate of expansion. 

The State appropriation for public schools has been in- 
creased $220,000. the total amount now paid out by the State 
for public education being more than one-half of its entire 
general revenue derived from taxation of propert}'. 

These leading facts of comparison and expansion are 
mentioned as general landmarks that arrest the attention 
upon the undisputable truth that Alabama is a growing and 
developing Commonwealth, with an energetic and aspiring 
people, whose enterprise is equal to prodigies, despite the sore 
lack of money which afflicted them in the beginning, and 
despite the want of skill for the arts of manufacturing among 
a population so lately and almost exclusively engaged in 
agricultural pursuits. The aspiration and the will to grow 
are deep-seated and have spread to the remotest rural com- 
munities, and this spirit has supplied in a few short years 
the skill employed in a manufacturing system rapidly becom- 
ing elaborate and complete. This same progress among the 
people, bringing into commercial forms the measureless 
wealth of nature, has attracted and fixed the confidence of 
outside capital so that it has already invested more than 
$50,000,000 in local enterprises, while the securities of the 



36 ALABAMA. 

State itselt' and its counties and its cities and its financial 
institutions compare in the money markets with those of the 
old and wealth}' sections of the country. 

But further than these leading facts, which bear their own 
testimony to the world, the prudent investor and home- 
seeker will inquire into those general conditions of society', 
industry and government which make life pleasant, render 
the attainment of its comforts and conveniences easy, and 
give permanency to values and cause property to be at once 
secure and remunerative. And first as to 

GOVERNMENT. 

The government of Alabama is securely in the hands of 
the intelligent, the conservative and the frugal among her 
people. They have resisted every encroachment of that 
element, which exists in every State, that nurses '' fads " and 
"isms," and that acts unthinking of the real purposes and 
limitations of political power. The constitution limits and 
confines the expenditure of tax money to the necessities of 
the government, while the conser\'atism of the people stead- 
ily refuses to sanction enlargements of appropriations save 
for the upbuilding of the common school system and the 
maintenance of needful public institutions, which must ex- 
pand with the growth of population. 

The energies of the State are devoted to the protection 
of lite and property and the administration of prudent laws, 
with the view that the indi^'idual and corporate energies of 
her people may act with safety and freedom. The wisdom 
and security of this settled policy is well borne out by the 
progress which, under its shelter, private enterprise has 
wrought in the past twelve years. 

The maximum limit of taxation by the State is 75 cents 
on the $100 ; by the counties it is 50 cents on the $100, and 
bv the cities it is 50 cents on the $100. So that the highest 
taxation for all purposes, except for payment of debts con- 



ALABAMA. 37 

tracted prior to the constitution, permissible under the oi- 
ganic law is $1.75 on the $100 — a rate exceeded by the 
municipal taxes alone of most of the cities of the country. 
As a matter of fact, the State levies 50 cents, and the coun- 
ties vary from 25 cents to 45 cents. 

PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 

The triumph of prudence and wisdom in public expendi- 
ture is nowhere better illustrated than in the steady reduc- 
tion of taxation in Alabama, along with the steady expan- 
sion of everv institution within her borders. Her State 
Universitv, left a heap of rubbish by the war, has risen in 
statelv beautv and completeness, a credit to the civilization 
of the Republic. 

Her Agricultural and Mechanical College, founded since 
the davs of civil strife, is among the first institutions of 
learning in the South, and as a technological school ranks 
with the best in the country. The departments of mechanic 
arts, of engineering and drawing, the agricultural experi- 
ment station and the laboratories give practical instruction 
in modern useful arts to more than 250 boys and girls per 
annum, and illustrate that Alabama is in touch with the 
practical drift of things. 

Five special agricultural experiment stations have been 
established, distributed with reference to the various soils 
and to the geography of the State, to four of which are at- 
tached schools of a practical character and high grade. 

Four normal colleges are maintained for the whites and 
two for the negroes, suppl3nng intelligent and progressiv'e 
modernized teachers for the public schools. 

A medical college is maintained at Mobile, and is one of 
the oldest and best accredited institutions of the kind in the 
countr}'. 

The Methodist, Baptist and Catholic denominations main- 
tain colleges or universities that compare favorably with those 



38 ALABAMA. 

sustained by the State, while female colleges of thoroughness 
and long establishment are well conducted in every section 
of the State, and there are numerous private schools which 
have acquired a State reputation. 

Institutes of free instruction for the blind and the deaf and 
dumb are conducted by the State, as is an hospital for the 
insane, whose condition and system are a credit to the en- 
lightened humanity of the American continent. 

A live and progressive Agricultural Department in the 
State government keeps the spirit of progress among the 
farmers abreast of the age, and each year sees an improve- 
ment in larm methods and farm equipments. 

A Railroad Commission looks after the interests of the 
people, at the same time being limited in its power to deal 
rashly with the railroads themselves. 

A Board of Managers of convicts is now at work changing 
the lease system to one more in accordance with the enlight- 
ened spirit of the age. 

Every old and established religious denomination has its 
churches, and no incomer will be lost in a multitude of 
strangers to his faith and tenets. 

Orphanages and hospitals are public benevolences, main- 
tained and well maintained by the munificence of church 
and private and municipal charitv. 

A State Geological Bureau is actively engaged in survey- 
ing and examining in a scientific wav the mineral deposits 
of the State. 

AGRICULTURE. 

The chief employment and the chief source of wealth of 
the people of Alabama is the tillage of the soil. The geo- 
graphical situation and topographical structure of the terri- 
torial area that makes the State of Alabama render her soil 
productions more varied than those of any other American 
Commonwealth, with one possible exception. On her south- 
ern coast, along the Gulf of Mexico and the bavs and inlets. 



ALABAMA. 



39 



the orange and oyster flourish within each other's sight, 
and there is a wealth of all the semi-tropical fruits and 
flowers. The soil is peculiarly adapted to market garden- 
ing, and the shipment of earh^ vegetables to the far Northern 
markets has developed into a business worth millions of 
monev and giving employment to many thousands of people. 
Mobile has become one of the first vegetable shipping mar- 
kets of the continent, while stations along her railroads for 
miles into the interior have become places of great shipping 
activity. The productions range from that staple article of 
diet, the potato, to that most highly prized of all the fruits, 
the luscious strawberry, whose natural and original home 
seems to have been in the pine districts of Alabama. 

Above the coast and stretching across the State in a great 
belt a hundred miles wide, is the long-leaf 3'ellow pine dis- 
trict of the Gulf region. Here the soil is comparatively 
thin, and was regarded by the old cotton plantation owners 
as comparatively worthless. The discovery of the phosphate 
mines of the Carolinas and of Florida and the utilization of 
the meal of cotton seed, were developments on which the 
small white larmer eagerly seized. By their aid he has 
transformed a large portion of this section into the agricul- 
tural garden spot of the State, a region of small farms, fru- 
gality and prosperity. The agricultural home-seeker of 
small means, whether from the colder States of this country 
or from Europe, will find this region worthy his careful 
attention. Large areas of these pine lands are still in the 
hands of the government awaiting the ownership of him 
who will come and take them, while vast stretches of forest, 
as they yearly go down before the march of the great saw- 
mill and turpentine companies, leave lands available to the 
settler at a song's cost. The population of the region is 
mostly white. 

Above this region of pine trees and small farmers, and 
stretching across the centre of the State from east to west, 
is the great Black belt, so named from the color of its rich 



40 ALABAMA. 

and productive soil. A large portion of these lands are 
prairies of almost inexhaustible natural fertility, while an- 
other large proportion are the rich alluvial deposits along 
the banks of the rivers and large streams, which make it 
one of the best-watered agricultural districts in the world. 
Cotton and corn are the chief products of the plantation 
system of farming in vogue, though the grasses are culti- 
vated to some extent and yield extravagant returns, while 
considerable attention is given to the cereals and the orchard 
fruits. 

It is the region of the great anti-bellum system of planta- 
tions, and inherits conditions which make these fertile coun- 
ties so inviting a field at this time for the stock-raiser and 
the colonist. Large bodies of land of high fertility and 
improvement can be had at prices that seem ridiculously 
low compared with their real productive value — $5 and $10 
for an acre richly worth from $20 to $40. The land-holders 
are land poor, with more than they have capital to operate, 
and capital could find no more inviting field than to pur- 
chase these plantations and divide them into small farms to 
be settled by immigrants of small means. 

It is not improbable that our own people, whether outside 
capital and enterprise come to their aid or not, will before 
many years transform the plantations into one of the great 
stock-raising districts of the country, that industry being in 
high favor, although it has not yet progressed to the extent 
of affecting the cheapness of land prices. 

This favored region is penetrated by four navigable rivers, 
and b}' numerous railroads, and is almost everywhere health- 
ful, the only exceptions being the neighborhood of a few 
swamps. It is true that the earning of a livelihood is a mat- 
ter of fewer da^^s' labor in the Black belt of Alabama than 
in any other region of the world outside the American Gulf 
States. 

Above the Black or Prairie belt is the mountain region, 
an alternation of hill and valley and table-land that extends 



ALABAMA. 4 1 

from east to west across the State, and from north to south 
for one hundred and fifty miles. The ahitude is high, the 
air bracing, the valleys numerous, extensive and productive, 
and the population mostly a class of small white farmers. 
The production of cotton is less readv than in the region 
below, but the altitude cools the air and gives the cereals a 
better show. It is the wheat section of the State and stock 
raising is general, the finer breeds of cattle reaching high 
perfection. It abounds in summer resorts, and mineral 
springs of sulphur and iron are so common as to well-nigh 
destrov their commercial value. In this mountain region 
are the deposits of minerals, the development of which bears 
an important relation to the agriculture of Alabama. The 
building of large manufacturing cities and mining commu- 
nities in supplying a home market is doing much to give 
variety to farm products, and insures to the farmer a steady 
increase in his facilities and the value of his lands. 

Above the mountain region is the Tennessee Valley, cross- 
ing the State at its northern end, the river being now navi- 
gable its entire length. The climate, soil and products are 
wonderfully similar to those of Middle Tennessee, the land 
of the race horse and the high-grade cow, and. as might be 
expected, this vallev is leading Alabama in stock raising and 
cattle breeding. The greatest butter-producing cow in the 
world is a native there, and broke the world's record before 
she left the State. Her name is Lily Flag, and she is now 
on exhibition at the World's Fair in Chicago. Corn is the 
leading crop, though cotton is extensively cultivated. 

In so varied a soil and climate as range over the three 
hundred miles between the Gulf and the Tennessee line, 
every product of the Temperate zone is native to the spot, 
and most of them are cultivated as profitable crops. The 
home-seeker, whatever may be his preference, for hill or 
valley, for plain or mountain, for lowland or upland, for 
prairie or rich alluvium or red-clay substratum, will find a 
location to suit his taste. Everywhere land is cheap, be- 



42 ALABAMA. 

cause vacant and unoccupied land is plentiful. Already 
many home-seekers from the Northern States and Europe 
have come to join the native population. 

One county of Alabama, Cullman, situated in the North 
Alabama mountain region, was created since the civil war 
and named for a German gentleman who saw the possibili- 
ties of this waste territory and settled it with a colony of his 
countr3^men. They are now among the most contented and 
thrifty people of the South, applying intelligence as well 
as industry to their farms, var3ang their products, improving 
the soil and carrying the cultivation of the fruits and vine 
to a high degree of perfection. Other German settlements 
are in an equally flourishing condition, object lessons to the 
home-seeker worth a thousand pamphlets. 

The farmer in Alabama has his ups and downs, like his 
fellows everywhere, but nowhere is the return for thrift more 
sure, and in a few latitudes of the world do so many things 
conspire to render his lot peculiarly fortunate. Healthful- 
ness, abundance of water and variety of product give him as 
the fruits of his labor and his own field the luxuries that are 
borne from far distances to more than two-thirds the popu- 
lation of the Union. There is not a product of the great 
West and Northwest which is not our own, while many of 
those most common here are unknown to colder climes. 

Of late much attention has been directed to experiments 
in the cultivation of tobacco, and it is believed that in the 
wider diversification of crops, which is sure to come, ovir 
farmers in nearly every section of the State will find profit 
in planting and gathering tobacco. 

MINERALS. 

The mineral resources of Alabama are second in import- 
ance to her agricultural. Their development was proceeding 
at a rapid rate when suspended by the collapse at the close 
of the war. The second period of their development began 
at so recent a period that notwithstanding the great progress 



ALABAMA. 43 

made, it may be said to be as yet still in the preliminary 
stages. Already the product of coal and raw iron is worth 
per annum more than $20,000,000. 

Already in the production of iron ore Alabama ranks second 
among the States of the Union, having passed even Penn- 
sylvania in the last census year, iVs a coal-producing State 
she ranks fifth, while the commercial value of her coal de- 
posits is exceeded by those of only Pennsylvania and West 
Virginia. The surface of her mines has been barely scratched ; 
yet her product is already more than 6,000,000 tons per an- 
num. Her enterprising coal operators are steadily extending 
their territory, reaching into all the Gulf States, Tennessee 
and Georgia, and sending in their own vessels cargoes to 
fill their contracts in Mexico and the lower Americas. The 
value of the exports through Mobile and Pensacola is limited 
only by the capital available for wresting the rich trade from 
old England, while the building of the Nicaragua canal 
holds out the sure prospect of a demand that will raise to 
great value the hitherto cheap and undeveloped fields along 
the Coosa, the Cahaba and the Warrior rivers. Already 
one mining company in Alabama is producing 10,000 tons 
per day. 

Alabama has both the red and the brown iron ore. The 
latter is a deposit twenty feet thick, lying along the surface 
of a mountain range for more than one hundred miles and 
standing alone and unapproachable among the mineral de- 
posits of the world. 

Limestone is the commonest among our products, and 
the production of lime is one of the great industries of the 
State. 

These three minerals, iron ore, coal and limestone, lie 
within five miles of each other, so that the raw materials for 
the production of pig iron and steel can be brought together 
at a cost below that of any locality on the earth, and enables 
the blast furnaces of Alabama to turn out iron at a cost of $8 



44 



ALABAMA. 



per ton. including interest on the investment. Alabama iron 
is sold at a profit in the markets of Ohio and even Pennsyl- 
vania, and at a price below the cost of production in those 
less favored sections. Steel is already past the stage of 
experiment as a product of Alabama ores, and Alabama 
steel will soon be invading the territory that has so long 
been the centre of the industry in this country. 

Other minerals that are worked commercially are kaolin, 
ochre, fire-clavs, bauxite, manganese, tripoli, the building 
stones, marble and gold. The deposits of each are of great 
extent and wonderful richness. Gold was extensively mined 
before the war, and in one countv to-day ten mills have been 
set to work within a year. 

The value of these mineral deposits cannot be overesti- 
mated. In the last ten vears the capitalists of the East and 
of Europe have put into their development more than $50,- 
000,000, and the period of the beginning has not yet passed. 
Many varieties of minerals exist as geological specimens 
that mav vet turn out to be commercially available. There 
is every indication that oil and natural gas exist and the 
search industriouslv proceeds. Geological formations augur 
well and experts express the conviction that the world may 
be startled any day by news that a new oil and gas field is 
pouring its wealth towards the skies. 



LUMBER. 



The geographical area of Alabama comprises more than 
32,000,000 acres. Of this great territory less than one-third 
is under cultivation. Nearly three-fifths is still covered by 
the native forest growth. Over 15,000,000 acres of timbered 
lands serve the double purpose of preserving the healthful- 
ness of the inhabitants and the equability of temperature 
and rainfall. 

These forests contain large and valuable supplies of cedar, 
oak, cypress, poplar, ash, hickory and gum, all of which are 



AI.ABAAIA. 45 

being cut in quantities that make important contributions to 
commerce and the wealth of the State. But by far the most 
important and extensive growth for supplying the present 
demand is the long-leaf yellow pine. The suppl}^ now stand- 
ing is computed with care and trustworthiness at more than 
13,000,000,000 feet, board measure, which at the present 
enormous annual cut will last beyond the lifetime of most 
men now living, even were there no renewal upon the de- 
nuded land. 

Alabama pine is a staple material in nearly every market 
for building material east of the Rocky mountains, while its 
export forms the most lucrative and extensive business of 
the seaports at Pensacola and Mobile. England and the 
continent of Europe are our customers. 

The yellow pine for building material and the hard woods 
mentioned above are a storehouse of well-nigh inexhaustible 
suppl}' for the arts of manufacture as they develop. Already 
the hard woods are being extensively utilized in manufactures 
of various kinds, from axe-helves up to carriages, while the 
cypress of the lower end of the State is the basis of a shingle 
trade of very large proportions. These woods grow in luxu- 
riance along the streams, down which they are floated to 
market or the mills. The growths of the highlands, while 
less valuable as to quality, are equal in quantity and are 
accessible by rail. As the timber of the more thickly-settled 
portions of the country is consumed, that of Alabama grows 
more valuable. The time cannot be far away when the 
forests of the Gulf States will be a mine of wealth, almost 
the sole dependence of the States east of the Mississippi 
river. 

MANUFACTURES. 

The progress of Alabama in manufactures is its own best 
testimony to the facilities and advantages of the State in that 
record. The cheapness of raw material that enters into most 
of the articles of comtbrt and use among mankind is sup- 



46 ALABAMA. 

plemented by a climate equable and mild ; by the speediest 
communication known to modern railway management with 
the markets of the country ; by a friendly spirit of encour- 
agement on the part of the railroads ; by a water transporta- 
tion or river system that penetrates from the seaboard to the 
interior in four navigable lines and across the northern end 
from east to west ; by low taxation and an abundance of 
unskilled labor that is at once intelligent and eager to learn 
and willing to give a day's full work for a day's pay. 

That Alabama, in common with the great cotton-producing 
States, is destined to become the seat of a vast cotton manu- 
facture is conceded by all observers of the drift of events and 
proven by the actual process of manufacture now going on. 
Twenty cotton mills are now in successful operation, some 
of them earning dividends of over thirty per cent, per an- 
num. In the midst of the financial crisis but now or so 
recently sweeping over the country, four new ones are being 
built. The advantage of the mill at the field is $5 per bale 
in the case of cotton as compared with the East, and more 
than that as compared with Eui-ope, a difference in itself 
equivalent to a large profit on such investments. The last 
Legislature, recognizing the advantages which Alabama pre- 
sents for the manufacture of cotton and woollen goods, and 
desirous to encourage the investment of capital in those in- 
dustries, passed a statute authorizing cities, counties and 
towns to exempt from taxation for five years all capital in- 
vested in buildings, machinery, etc. 

For all articles made from iron and steel, Alabama affords 
the advantage of iron at $8 to $10 compared with $12 and 
$13 in all territory along the Ohio and Potomac rivers and 
beyond. Steel is produced at a cost relatively as low. The 
iron-working establishments of the State are busy and pros- 
perous, filling contracts for the Gulf States and the islands 
of the Gulf. The capital invested in rolling mills alone in- 
creased in the ten years from 1880 to 1890 from $203,000 to 



ALABAMA. 



47 



$2,723,990. In wood-working establishments and miscella- 
neous factories the progress has been equally as marked ; 
furniture factories, basket factories, tannin extract works, 
planing mills, canning factories, etc., having multiplied with 
great rapidity. Of the cotton-seed mills there are nine in 
operation and one is building. 

The staple articles that are used in profitable manufacture 
in x\labama are cotton, iron, limestone, the various woods, 
with coal as the universal fuel. The prices of these at the 
points of cheapest cost and highest cost are given, and the 
careful investor can make his own comparisons : 



Minerals — Coal, 






1 .85 to $ 2.00 per ton. 


Iron, pig, 






8.00 to 10.00 per ton. 


Coke, . 






2.25 to 3.25 per ton. 


Lumber — Hickory, 






15.00 per I\I. feet. 


Ash, 






15.00 


Poplar, . 






15.00 


Oak, 






13.00 


Pine, 






8.00 



These are prices of staple varieties of lumber at the lead- 
ing cities of North Alabama. At points nearer the forests 
the cost is less. 

The price of cotton varies with the market daily, but it is 
one cent per pound less than in New York and contiguous 
centres. The price of fuel, eight3"-five cents per ton, is least 
at Birmingham, varying with the distance from the mines. 
It is less than in any State of the South. 

No State is more richly blessed with water-power than 
Alabama, whether in quantity or locations, though the won- 
derful cheapness of fuel has so far discouraged its utilization. 

The invitation of these figures is self-evident. Some ma- 
terial is cheaper at one point in the State, some at another, 
the manufacturer making choice according to his needs. 



SCHOOLS. 



The first question the home-seeker, if not an investor, asks 
is concerning the schools. Alabama has a free-school sys- 



48 ALABAMA. 

tern on which is expended a sum equal to more than half the 
revenues of the State, and which is being augmented year 
b\^ year. In all the cities and towns the State appropriation 
is supplemented by the local authorities, and the city systems 
are equal to those of the oldest and wealthiest States of the 
Union. The friends of public education number all the 
people, and the public-school fund is the dearest care of 
every legislator. The appropriations keep the schools of 
the country open for four months, and a small private sup- 
plement is a common practice. The free city schools are 
open for nine months of every ^^ear. 

THE NEGRO. 

The so-called negro problem is a difficulty that lies in the 
path of no investor. It is onlv the home-seeker, and espe- 
cially the farm-seeker, who halts and stumbles at its imagi- 
nary menace. If he chooses he can find a home in the 
mountain region or the Pine belt, where the negro is a mere 
fraction of the population, and wliere many great covmties 
have practicall}' no negroes at all. Even in the Black belt, 
where the negro is most numerous, this vast body ot unskilled 
and tractable labor has its own advantages and offers to the 
land-owners a source of profitable agriculture without a par- 
allel outside of the Southern States of the Union. Politi- 
cally, the negro has begun to divide ; has turned his atten- 
tion to the grave problems of bread and meat and education ; 
is doing well and is improving, all things considered. 

HEALTH. 

It is a common and generous weakness of mankind to 
claim, each for his home, the blessing of healthfulness. It 
is an equally common weakness to exaggerate the dangers 
to life in localities far removed. While here in Alabama we 
believe that we have as healthful a country as exists on the 
globe, we are aware that the inhabitants of Northern Europe 



ALABAMA. 49 

and of the Northern States of America possess exaggerated 
ideas of the fever dangers of the Gulf coast. As a matter 
of fact, the death rate of our cities, where the statistics are 
accurately preserved, show a general rate of mortality rather 
under than over the average of the country at large, and for 
whites alone very much under the average, ranging from 
eight to twenty per thousand. Epidemics rarely intrude 
upon us, and when the}' do their ravages are contined by a 
thoroughly-organized State Board of Health and quarantine 
system. Indeed, the single disease of consumption in colder 
climates is more fatal in its ravages than all the fevers and 
epidemics from which Alabama has ever suffered . An in- 
creasing number of strangers are coming each year to Ala- 
bama in search of health among her mountains in summer 
and on her Gulf coast in winter. 

ALABAMA CITIES. 

The progress and prosperity of a State in this day and 
time are oftenest measured by the growth and equipment of 
its cities. I do not agree with this standard, for a people 
may be wonderfulh' strong and prosperous when measured 
by the industry and thrift of the farm. If cities grow merely 
because the inhabitants of the farm are deserting unpleasant 
surroundings, urban growth is a sign of decay. 

In Alabama, the growth and improvement of cities is phe- 
nomenal, but not at the expense of the country, Manutac- 
turing development is giving employment to more and more 
hundreds and thousands each 3'ear, drawing some surplus 
population from the country and much skilled labor from 
Europe and the East, adding to the value of farms and the 
strength of the Commonwealth. Urban growth in Alabama 
is based on multiplying smoke-stacks and electric-motors 
and water-wheels. It is the result of yar3nng the products 
of industry, the development of new sources of wealth. This 



50 ALABAMA. 

growth is shown b}^ the following table of population in three 
of the leading cities : 

iSSo. 1890. 

Montgomery, 16,713 21,798 

Birmingham 2,086 26,178 

Anniston, 942 9,998 

The growth in many of the smaller towns has been equall}?^ 
as gratifying, while the addition of the modern city improve- 
ments, such as electric lights, electric railroads, water-works, 
stone pavements and sanitary sewers, has kept pace with the 
growth of population. A goodly percentage of the live and 
progressive citizens of our municipalities came from the 
Eastern and Western States and from Europe, and few can 
be found among all the thousands who is not pleased with 
the cordiality of his welcome and satisfied with his equal 
showing in the race of life. 

STEEL AND ALUMINUM. 

This is the age of steel. For some time the completeness 
and symmetry of the manufacturing development of Alabama 
has halted over what was familiarl}' called the problem of 
steel-making from our native ores. The problem consisted 
purely in the making of such experiments as were necessary 
to determine the exact process to be employed and the proper 
proportion of the various elements of pig-iron conversion. 
These experiments have proceeded through six years, and 
every test known to the ingenuity of experts has been ap- 
plied. Capital is ever slow to engage in experimentation 
and many difficulties have been encountered. But the ex- 
periment stage has at last been successfully passed and x\la- 
bama is at last prepared to announce as a fact the successful 
production of commercial steel at a price as much below that 
in Pennsylvania as the relative price of her iron. The pro- 
duction of steel in quantities equal to the demand of the 
whole country and at a cost that defies competition on this 
continent, or any other, is now a mere matter of capital. 



ALABAMA. 5 1 

The same wonderful development that followed the success- 
ful making of blast-furnace coke iron will follow this suc- 
cessful manufacture of commercial steel. Alabama, during 
the current year, has entered her steel era and alread}^ plans 
are laid and companies forming to reap the profits that so 
certainly awaits the investment. 

If the popular and scientific opinion is correct that the 
world is about to enter an age of another and better metal, 
aluminum, Alabama will not follow in that. She will take 
the lead. Her deposits of bauxite, the mineral from which 
the pure metal is refined, are not surpassed in the world, 
and are already being developed. Whatever the future of 
aluminum may be, Alabama will be the State of its chief 
production. 

CONCLUSION. 

The above has been wn-itten with a view of inviting the 
more careful inquiry of the reader. Wearisome statistics 
and tables and tests have been avoided, with the hope that 
this outline of the general conditions of life and business 
and natural endowments will solicit a visit of investigation 
or a reqiiest for '• more," which will be promptly honored if 
addressed to any of our Boards of Trade in the cities of the 
State, or to the Department of Agriculture at the State 
Capitol at Montgomery. 

In conclusion, I speak for all the people in the State, a 
people world-famous for their open-hearted generosity, hos- 
pitality and candor, and a people eager for assistance in the 
development of their resources, when I sa}^ to every good 
man of every clime that he will be welcomed as one of us 
and given an equal share with every other man in the strug- 
gle of life. We believe in Alabama that we have but entered 
on a career of development that assures munificent returns. 
We have done with rebuilding the shattered fortunes and 
structures of w^ar. We are not hoarders of money, but are 



52 ALABAMA. 

investing our all and bending our every energy to greet the 
first day of the twentieth century as a Commonwealth pros- 
perous in every department of human endeavor and abreast 
with every improvement and condition of twentieth-century 
civilization. Come and join us. 

Thomas G. Jones, 
Governor oj' Alabama . 



PAPER PREPARED BY 



BE)NJ. H- TIL^I^MAN 



G(i)vefi^(^r (bf S^<atln Gar(i)li^a. 



SOUTH CAROLINA, 



ITS LOCATION, RESOURCES, ADVANTAGES, NEEDS AND 

DESCRIPTION. 



The State of South CaroHna Hes between north latitude 
32° 4' 30" and 35° 12', and west longitude from Washington 
1° 30' and 6° 54'. Estimated area, 50,000 square miles. It 
is in the shape of a triangle almost isosceles, and its surface 
slopes gradually from the Blue Ridge mountains, where the 
highest point in the State, Mount Pinnacle, reaches the ele- 
vation of 3,450 feet. The general elevation is 500 to 1,000 
feet, sloping down in a southeasterly direction to the swamps 
and sand-bars of the coast. The geological break along the 
Atlantic slope, passing from Richmond, Va., through Colum- 
bia, Augusta, Ga., and Millidgeville, Ga., indicating first fall 
in the rivers, divides South Carolina into the "Up-country" 
and the "Low-country" — the former of granite formations, 
with its clays ; the latter an alluvial, tertiary soil, with its 
sandy loams. Geologicall}^ speaking, there is no shading of 
the periods, the alluvial strata resting directly on archaen 
granite. The old sea beach was along this break and passed 
through Columbia. 

While there are only a few peaks that can be called moun- 
tains, the Up country is rolling, with rapid water-courses, and 
the Low country is quite level, with tortuous and sluggish 
streams. 



56 SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Through the State roll four large rivers with their tributa- 
ries, and navigation for boats of at least two hundred tons is 
practicable for more than a hundred miles inland. The 
Federal Government is now clearing out snags from the 
rivers, opening up increasing areas to water navigation and 
to competing freight lines. 

Maj. Harry Hammond, in his Hand-Book of South Caro- 
lina, divides the State into seven regions, with the limits 
running somewhat in a parallel direction to the coast, as fol- 
lows : 

I. The Coast region ( 1,000 square miles) extends for ten 
miles inland from the sea. It is comprised of sea islands 
and low, marshv mainland. These sea islands have long 
been famed for their long staple cotton, the finest in the 
world, and now coming into great prominence as truck farms. 
Here the mildness of the climate and the fertility of the soil 
enable farmers to push their vegetables among the first into 
the great markets. Much monev can be and has been made 
in this industry. 

II. The Lower Pine belt (10,000 square miles, of which 
4,500 are subject to overflow,) lies back of the sea islands, 
and is about fifty miles wide, with a maximum elevation of 
150 feet. Here are found the great rice fields and the tur- 
pentine farms and cattle ranges. 

III. The Upper Pine belt or Upper Central belt has a soil of 
a light, sandv loam, underlaid b}' red and yellow clay. It 
rises from 130 to 250 feet, and embraces 5,500 square miles, 
including inland swamps, bays and river bottoms of unsur- 
passed fertilitv. 

IV. The Red hills (1,600 square miles) are north of this 
region, rising in places to an elevation of 600 feet. This 
section is composed of red clay and sandy lands, and has a 
growth of pine, oak, and also hickor}- and other hard woods. 
In this region are situated the health resort of Aiken and the 
historic high hills of the Santee, and the fertile ridge lands 
of Edgefield, noted for fruit as well as staple crops. 



SOUTH CAROLINA. , 57 

V. The Sand-hill region (2,400 square miles) is of less 

fertility than other portions, but its soil can be brought to a 

high degree of richness by fertilization, while it is the most 

health}^ region of the world, free from all malaria, and it 

abounds in vast stretches of pine timber. Grapes succeed 

splendidly in this belt and also peaches. 

r 10 000 

VI. The Piedmont region or Up-country (100,000 square 

miles) rises to an elevation of 800 feet in places, being of a 
rolling formation. It contains cold gra}' lands overlying 
clay slates, gray sandy soils from granite gneiss, hornblende 
lands, and trappean soil. 

In former days this portion of the State produced chiefly 
cereals, but the application of commercial fertilizers so has- 
tened the maturity of cotton that this crop is now planted in 
the yery foot-hills of the Blue Ridge, and on the top of some 
of the mountains. 

VII. The Alpine region ( 100 square miles) stops just short 
of the main mountain ridge. It highest peaks are Mount 
Pinnacle, in Pickens county, 3,450 feet ; Caesar's Head, a 
very popular summer resort, 3,113 feet high, and King's 
mountain, about 2,000 feet. The valleys in the foot-hills are 
fertile, and the hill sides are covered with a dense growth of 
oak, poplar and other woods. Very fine apples grow here, 
and succeed tolerably well as far south as Columbia. 

WATER-POWER. 

The physical features of the State are such that the most 
abundant water-power exists. The Columbia canal, which 
has been recently finished, aftbrds 10,000 horse-power, and 
the power could be doubled by extending the canal two 
miles. The Great falls of the Catawba, with the remains of 
the canal, are destined in the future to play a great part in 
the wealth of the State. Here the river falls about 125 feet 
in three miles. Horse creek, in Aiken county, already runs 
the Graniteville cotton mills and others, and in Spartanburg 



58 SOUTH CAROLINA. 

and other counties several magnificent powers have been 
utilized. 

Mr. Swaim, the special agent of the census of 1880, made 
a careful estimate of the water-power of our streams as 
reaching a million horse-power, ranging from 30 to 3,000 
power in individual cases. If developed these would give 
employment to 6,000,000 operatives in cotton mills and allow 
for an increase of 3,000,000 in our population. 

Owing to w^ant of capital in the State, these powers can be 
bought cheaply now, and they would prove capital invest- 
ments. The winters are so mild that there is comparatively 
no trouble from freezing. 

The benignity of the climate also makes living cheaper, 
and this adds to the advantages offered manufacturers by our 
water-powers. 

CLIMATE. 

A series of observations, carried on at intervals for about 
one hundred years by observers in Charleston, and by the 
signal service of the United States, would indicate an ave- 
rage annual mean temperature of about 65 degrees. The 
highest recorded temperature at long intervals has been 104 
degrees, though the mercury seldom reaches 100. The 
lowest record w^as 2 degrees, though in twenty-four years of 
record only twice was a lower temperature than 17 found. 
The mean for winter is about 54, and for summer about 76. 

It may be said of South Carolina, as was remarked of 
England by Charles II., that there is no part of the w^orld 
in which the people can spend more time comfortably out of 
doors. Sleighing and skating are practically unknown, and 
the heat is intense for only a short time in the summer, and 
the thermometer ranges lower than in the North during July 
and August. The average annual rainfall is about 60 inches 
for the mountain ranges and about 52 for the State. The 
■gentle declivity of the State from the mountains to the sea- 
board, and the general prevalence of the southwest winds, 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 59 

remove the climate from the extremes of floods and drafts 
and give little cause for fogs. This combination makes the 
State peculiarly salubrious for persons affected with pulmo- 
nary diseases, and for those who wish to shun the rigor of 
the Northern winters without experiencing the enervating 
effects of semi-tropical humid atmosphere. Aiken and Sum- 
merville are specialh' famed as sanitariums, and the great 
pine regions are free from malaria, while the inhabitants of 
the mountains, too, are noted for their longevity. 

AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 

The area of land under cultivation in this State in 1880 
was 3,974,000 acres, while in 1890 it was estimated at 5,000,- 
000 ; the remainder, about 12,000,000, exclusive of water sur- 
face, is divided into pasture and woodland. .Cane swamps 
afford perennial pasturage for cattle and other live stock, and 
the best permanent pasturage for summer is afforded by Ber- 
muda and other grasses. 

It is estimated that there are between four and five million 
acres of finest pine and cypress land for future lumbering, 
besides other woodland and hard woods in other portions of 
the State. 

No State presents a greater diversity of crops. Clover, 
lucern or alfalfa and millet and the native crab and Bermuda 
and Means grasses, together with cow-peas, are capable of 
making all the long forage needed for stock. All the small 
grains grow luxuriantlv. River bottoms here yield to no 
other lands in the amount of corn. Potatoes, sweet and 
Irish, vield several hundred bushels to the acre under good 
cultivation anywhere in the State. In the past few years 
tobacco has been cultivated, and the culture is speeding 
rapidly : the qualitv is unsurpassed. The truck farms of the 
coast are a new mine of wealth, and their products are early 
enough to command best prices in the Northern markets. 
Somewhat later the ridge lands in the middle of the State 



6o SOUTH CAROLINA. 

ship abundance of peaches, and the Piedmont region sends 
grapes of tinest quality and appearance. As for water- 
melons, the problem is how to dispose of all that can be 
made. 

The staple crop is still cotton, and in this State it is well 
up in average yield. The want of sufficient capital has 
seduced farmers to devote their attention too fully as a 
money crop. It always commands a sale, even at reduced 
rates, while other crops may be a drug on the market. 
Where cotton can be produced as a surplus crop it pays, 
and this is practicable in any part of the State, as shown by 
numerous examples ; but under a credit system, when food 
supplies are brought from abroad, the raising of cotton has 
been full of discouragement. The profits of cotton raising- 
have been largely increased of late years by the fertilization 
of the soil. It has always been known that cotton seed was 
a fine fertilizer, but its use, except as cow-food, has been re- 
stricted. 

The establishment of cotton-oil mills opens an entirely 
new industry, yielding large profits. 

THE PRODUCTS OF COTTON. 

Fifteen hundred pounds of seed cotton will yield on an 
average 500 pounds of lint and i ,000 pounds of seed ; this 
seed, when sent to the oil mill, will yield, of short lint or 
" linters," 12 pounds; of hulls, 488 pounds; of meal, 350 
pounds : of oil, 20 gallons, or 150 pounds. 

During last season the linters sold for 5 cents per pound ; 
the meal for 1^24 per ton ; the hulls at $2 to $3, and the oil 
from 35 to 40 cents per gallon. These are figures supplied 
from one of the interior mills and may exceed the average ; 
but it shows that the "products" of cotton ^neld about 
$20 for every bale of lint. Estimate the cotton selling at 8 
cents per pound, and the total value is $60 per bale. 

It is true that the phenomenally high price of bacon and 




milii,,»4tl| 





w ii«itSniiiiii't'a5?Jwiiiil II 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 6 1 

lard led to the very great advance in the price of oil, as it is 
used to adulterate or compound the latter ; but this is proof 
that the time is comin<^, or is already here, when cotton seed 
will enter largely into the food of the people. The possi- 
bilities of chemistry are such that we may predict that at no 
distant day this oil will receive that degree of refinement 
which will remove any defect that now prevents its absolute 
popularity in the market in a pure state. Already the oil is 
vised as a substitute for olive oil. Cotton-seed meal now 
stands unrivalled as a tertilizer. It fields on analysis 8% 
ammonia, 2 ^ phosphoric acid, and i ^; potash. The 488 
pounds of hulls, when calcined in the mill as fuel, yield 16 
pounds of ash, containing 25% of potash and io% phos- 
phoric acid ; but the hulls are too valuable to be burned. 

It has been discovered that the hulls make a most excel- 
lent substitute for hay. When mixed with one-fourth their 
weight in cotton-seed meal they supply splendid ration to 
cattle. Twenty pounds of the mixture will, in 100 days, 
fatten the poorest steer and bring him to market in prime 
condition. These hulls, at from ten to fifteen cents a hundred, 
take the place of hay and greatl}" reduce the cost of keep- 
ing stock. The hulls can be baled, and they can be conve- 
niently fed, without the loss accompanying the feeding of 
unchopped hay. These advantages indicate the rise of dairy 
tarming as an important industry in the future. Experienced 
dairymen would doubtless grow rich if they would establish 
themselves in this State. A great deal of mone}- now goes 
oft' for butter and beet". i\t present there are a few herds of 
cattle in this State and some good creameries, but there is 
ample rooin for developinent. Good butter sells always at 
from twenty-five to forty cents per pound. 

Sheep raising has been one of the industries of the State 
in the past, but has declined, owing to the cotton mania and 
danger from dogs : but the climate of the State is well 
adapted to this industry. It may be added that, while it is 



62 SOUTH CAROLINA. 

said to cost a dollar a month per head in the North to bring 
sheep through the winter, this can be done here with the use 
of cotton-seed hulls and meal for 25 cents a month. Pasture 
lands cost about one-fifth here that they cost in the North, 
and this gives a large margin of profit. If the industr}^ were 
established, the dog nuisance would be abated. 

The cotton crop of the State varies from 500,000 to 750,- 
000 bales. With factories to put this into cloth, and with a 
utilization of the good properties of the seed, a mine of 
wealth would be opened, and it would do much to revive 
agriculture. 

The manufacture of the different products of cotton would 
diversify our industries and open the way for still greater 

prosperity- 

Along with cotton culture could and should go oil mills 
and factories, fertilizer mills, dairy farms, sheep raising, etc. 

PHOSPHATES. 

Not less blessed in her agricultural advantages is South 
Carolina in the apparentl}^ inexhaustible stores of phosphate 
deposits, the basis of good commercial fertilizers at a low 
price. This is one of the most remarkable natural boons 
vouchsafed to man. The land deposits belong to private 
owners ; the river beds are the property of the State and 
are leased by persons and companies paying a royalty of one 
dollar per ton to the State. 

STATEMENT OF SHIPMENT OF PHOSPHATES 1 89 1 -92. 

Foreign shipments, tons, 
Coastwise " " 

Interior " " 

Consumed, 

Total, . 

Grand total, 548,396, of which 356,396 was land rock and 
192,000 river rock. 



Charleston. 


Beaufort. 


4-396 


120,058 


145,627 


30,602 


58,715 


10,000 


165,000 


16,000 



'1,736 176,660 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 



63 



AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS. 





1870. 


iSSo. 


1S90 


Cotton, bales, 


224,500 


552,348 


750,000 estimated 


Corn, bushels. 


7,614,207 


11,767,099 


22,000,000 " 


Rice, pounds, 


32,000,000 


52,000,000 


93,000 barrels. 


Wheat, bushels, 


783,000 


962,000 


1,500,000 estimated 


Oats, bushels. 


613,000 


2,715,000 


3,500,000 


Farms, . 


51,889 


93,864 




Average acre per farm. 


233 


143 





There is no way of getting at the precise figures of the 
crops of corn and small grain and minor crops ; but the corn 
crop last year was the largest ever made in the State, and 
will do much to compensate for the low profits from the 
cotton crop. 

MANUFACTURES. 

In the census of 1880 South Carolina was represented in 
fifty-three out of fifty-seven manufacturing occupations men- 
tioned in the compendium, a proof of the diversit}^ of her 
resources. Formerly the production of staple crops for ex- 
port and extractive industries were more suited to our soil 
and our system of labor, and other sections were allowed to 
outstrip us in the other lines of production. The competi- 
tion of the great prairies and bottoms of the West admon- 
ishes us of the necessity of calling on our great reserve 
power and entering boldly into the new field of industry. 
The highest civilized nation and the highest prosperity can 
be reached only b}^ a proper combination of urban and rural 
industries, so that this tendencv to diversification was very 
gratifying. 

South Carolina has no coal in her borders, and this is a 
disadvantage ; but the pushing of railway lines to the great 
coal-fields of Tennessee and Alabama is doing much to over- 
come this disadvantage. The finest magnetic iron ore of the 
world is found in the upper part of the State ; but the supply 
of wood became exhausted years ago and the furnace closed. 
Later, at Blacksburg, iron furnaces have been established and 



64 SOUTH CAROLINA. 

promise great results. The ores taken from this part of the 
country are needed to mix in the ores of other beds. There 
are factories of different kinds in different parts of the State. 
Good wagons and buggies are made in more than one localit}^ 
at prices comparing favorably with those obtaining elsewhere. 
But the chief industry is that of cotton spinning, and in this 
the increase has been most remarkable. Years ago there 
were factories here, but they gave way in importance to agri- 
culture. At the beginning of the w^ar only a few were of 
importance. In the past decade this State has been pushing 
forward rapidly. Both steam and water-power are used, 
but the latter is in excess. The factories using steam, how- 
ever, though they have to import their coal from other States, 
are receiving handsome profits. 

The following table gives a comparison for three periods : 

STATISTICS OF COTTON FACTORIES. 



Number, 


1870. 
12 


1S80 
26 


1S92. 

44 estimated. 


Capital, . 
Spindles, 


. 11,069,000 
35,000 


14,084,000 
181,000 


|7, 000, 000 
462,000 


Looms, . 






12,000 


Bales consumed, . 
Value of products, 


9,500 

. $1,229,000 


31,000 

12,895,000 


186,099 
|i 2,000,000 estimated. 



South Carolina leads the South in this industry, and the 
profits are very large, being from 7 to 25 per cent, annually. 
The mills must, sooner or later, " come to the cotton." Those 
coming first will have choice of water-power and location. 

TURPENTINE AND LUMBER. 

The turpentine industrv still occupies many of our citizens. 
The product of last year is estimated at 75,000 casks of tur- 
pentine and 225,000 barrels of resin. Although much of the 
timber has been cut away, a great deal remains, and there 
are many saw-mills. Lumber is comparatively cheap and 
the export is large. It has been claimed a long time that, 
after the pine tree has been "hacked" for turpentine, it be- 




«iar 



SOUTH CAROLINA, 65 

comes unfit for sawing into first-class lumber. As much of 
the pine lands have been treated, there was a hesitanc}^ in 
buying lumber. Recent careful experiments by the United 
States Government are said to prove conclusively that the 
extraction of turpentine has no deleterious effect whatever 
on the wood, either chemically or physically. Proof of such 
a gratifying fact immediateh^ adds immensely to the value of 
our forests. 

VALUE OF PROPERTY. 

The property of South Carolina is assessed as follows : 

Real estate, I91, 700,000 

Personal property, 50,786,000 

Railroad property, 26,700,000 



Total, $169,186,000 

It is obvious that this is not the true valuation of the pro- 
perty. Some consider it not more than two-thirds ; others 
not more than half. The effect of this undervaluation is 
to make the tax rate appear double. Were the property 
assessed at its value, no one would be compelled to pay more 
for general expenses, and the low rate of taxes compares 
favorably with the levy in other States. The tax levy on 
this low assessment is : For State purposes, 5-2- mills ; for 
ordinary county taxes, about 3 mills ; for schools, 2 mills ; 
with special taxes in certain localities. 

FUNDING THE STATE DEBT. 

During the present year the State has funded over five 
millions of dollars' worth of bonds which will fall due in 
July. The old bonds bore 6 per cent, interest and the new 
ones will bear 4^ per cent. These bonds are free from taxes, 
and coupons are receivable for all taxes except for the sup- 
port of schools. A sinking fund of $75,000 a year, secured 
by phosphate royalty, is provided. These bonds were taken 



(id SOUTH CAROLINA. 

in a block by a syndicate and are now quoted above par. 
The total bonded debt of the State is about six and a half 
millions. The constitution provides that the indebtedness 
of the State shall not be increased without a vote of two- 
thirds of the qualified electors of the State, and that no 
county or municipality shall have a debt in excess of 8 per 
cent, of its assessed property. This wise provision insures 
investors against rash actions and makes the bonds of the 
State a capital investment. 

Railroads connect all parts of the State with each other 
and with the great centres of trade and population. Water 
transportation in the lower portions is cheap and convenient. 
The total mileage of the State is 253,511 miles. 

RELIGION AND EDUCATION. 

The people of South Carolina are homogeneous. Most 
of the whites have common origin. There is no foreign 
popiilation of low character to menace our free institutions. 
The foreign citizens of South Carolina are among the best. 
They have assimulated themselves to the existing conditions. 
Contests between capital and labor are practically unknown. 
In every portion of the State churches abound, and the differ- 
ent denominations have each a large membership. 

Popular education has much advanced in the last decade. 
In many towns there are fine graded schools, besides private 
institutions. There are fine higher institutions of learning. 
The State maintains three white and one colored colleges, 
and there are several private and sectarian colleges. All are 
doing good work. They offer superior facilities for the use 
of other States who cannot stand a cold climate. Persons 
who believe that every town should contain a church and a 
schoolhouse will find these conditions in South Carolina. 
Public free school buildings in 1892, 3,487 ; costing in erec- 
tion, $438,112.49. Enrollment: White, 93,530: colored. 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 67 

113,219; total, 206,749. ^^^^ average attendance: White, 
67,934; colored, 80,827 ; total, 148,761. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

There is ample opportunity for prolit in the oyster industry. 
The State owns many acres of line oyster beds, which she 
leases on reasonable terms. Though the Carolina ovster is 
not so large as his Chesapeake brother, he is a rival in deli- 
cacy of flavor. Diminishing yields elsewhere should lead 
oyster growers to turn their attention hither. Streams, lakes 
and bays abound in fine fish. 

Dr. Boyles, of Pendleton, is said to have made the largest 
yield of rice to the acre in the history of rice culture, which 
was 92 bushels, and Dr. Parker, of Columbia, before the war, 
made and gathered 200 bushels of corn from a measured acre. 

Col. J. D. Wylie. of Lancaster, made the largest oat crop 
on an acre, which was 147 bushels. 

Mr. Drake, of Marlboro, a few ^-ears ago, won the Aine7'i- 
can Agricultuj'isf s prize of $1,000 for the best acre of corn 
in the United States. The crop, gathered in the presence of 
the press and others, measured two hundred and fifty-four 
(254) bushels and some odd pounds. This surpasses all 
known records, and was made on upland. 

Some of the heaviest yields of cotton in the world have 
been from this State. 

Ten cuttings of alfalfa, averaging twent}- inches to the 
cutting, were made in one year, it is said, b}' Col. Rion, of 
Fairfield. 

More than a million dollars" worth of gold was taken from 
the Do mine, in Edgefield, and several paving mines are now 
in operation. 

The finest long staple cotton in the world has been grown 
on our sea islands. 

The above facts give some idea of the natural resources 
and future prospects of the State. South Carolina offers 



68 SOUTH CAROLINA. 

advantages to comers who seek homes, a salubrious climate 
or investment. Whether desiring to be manufacturers or 
farmers, they cannot go amiss if they set their faces toward 
the Palmetto State, and all such are heartily welcome. 

B. R. Tillman, 
Governor' of South Carolina. 



PAPER PREPARED BY 



P, W, MoKINNE)Y, 



G(*)veri^(i)r (^f Yimi-fiia 



VIRGINIA, 



ITS LOCATION, RESOURCES, ADVANTAGES, NEEDS AND 

DESCRIPTION. 



Virginia is one of the Middle Atlantic States, lying mid- 
way between Maine on the North and Florida on the South. 
It is also one of the belt of Central States which runs across 
the continent from east to west. It is situated in latitude 
36° 31' to 39° 27' north, corresponding to that of Southern 
Europe, Central Asia, Southern Japan and California. Its 
longitude is from 75° 13' to 83° 37' west from Greenwich. 
It extends 2° 57' north and south and 9° 24' east and west. 

In soil, climate, productions, conveniences for transporta- 
tion, educational and religious advantages, Virginia has no 
superior among all the States in the Union. Blessed with 
the finest climate, absolutely free from extremes of heat and 
cold, visited by neither cyclones nor blizzards, and lamine 
and pestilence being unknown, Virginia offers a safe place 
for a home where expectations of comfort and prosperous 
continuance can be relied on. The average temperature 
(officially ascertained) of the State is 56.9, and the average 
rainfall 42.12, for ten years, and does not vary materially in 
any section. 

The land of the State is cheap, from the splendid blue-grass 
region of the Valley of the Shenandoah and the Southwest, 
through the magnificent orchards and yellow-tobacco fields 



72 VIRGINIA. 

of Piedmont, to the cotton and peanut plains of the southern 
border, and the oyster beds and fishery shores of Tidewater. 
On the great rivers can be found good, cheap lands — low- 
priced when compared with like lands in other States in the 
Union. 

MINERALS. 

The mines of valuable ores are richer and minerals are 
cheaper and the wood and timber can be bought for less than 
elsewhere, while in quality and intrinsic value they are fully 
equal to the best in other States. 

For twenty years mineralogists have predicted that the time 
would come when Virginia would be ahead of all other States 
in the quantit}' and quality of its minerals. These predictions 
have been verified and immense deposits of minerals, richer 
than any other State can show, and great coal-fields for 
making coke, higher in fixed carbon and more valuable for 
smelting purposes than any others, have been discovered, and 
this coke is being carried bv rail to make cheap iron in other 
States. During the past few years there has been a great in- 
crease in the amount of capital invested, and a greatly in- 
creased activity in the mining of tin, gold, mica, clay, salt, 
pyrites, etc. 

The number of prospectors and explorers of minei-als is 
greater than ever before in the State, and more analyses and 
practical tests of minerals have been made, all with fine re- 
sults. This discloses the fact that minerals in paying quan- 
tities and qualities are found in many localities not known 
as mineral bearing heretofore, and thus exceeding the high- 
est expectations. These minerals are in many cases in close 
proximity, which lessens the expense of manufacturing when 
more than one kind of mineral is needed. For instance : 
Coking coal, iron, lime and manganese for cheap iron and 
steel ; salt, coal, manganese and lime for soda ash and bleach ; 
high carbonate marls and fine aluminous clay for cement ; 
fire clav for furnaces, etc. ; alkaline clay for vitrified brick ; 
pvrite, coal and lime for sulphuric acid. Another consider- 




m.-4 f^-^' 




VIRGINIA. 73 

ation of value in this connection is that there is ah-eady rail- 
road transportation through nearly all the mineral sections, 
with abundant water-power, where water-power is needed. 

The surface of the State rises by five steps from the ocean 
shore to an altitude of nearly six thousand feet. Under these 
steps are all the richest minerals. The first area includes the 
phosphate marls of Tidewater and the gold and more recent 
coal formation and sulphuret belt of Middle Virginia ; then 
come the magnetic iron, lead, zinc and manganese deposits 
of Piedmont, the Blue Ridge and the Valley, and next the 
vast deposits of salt, coal, iron and g3'psum in Appalachia. 

The Commissioner of Agriculture reports that " coke 
from her immense coal-fields is higher in fixed carbon and 
more valuable for smelting than any other, and has been car- 
ried hundreds of miles by rail to make cheap iron in other 
States. Her iron for steel, for cannon, for car-wheels, for 
stoves, etc., has been given, upon test, the highest places. 
Her immense deposits of manganese stand before the world 
without a rival. Her zinc has long had a reputation based 
on a contract with the Italian Government, and both the mines 
and the smelting are increasing. Her granite was accepted 
by the Federal Government for building after an official test, 
and the finest pavements in many cities of our sister States 
are of Virginia Belgian block. Her large deposits of mag- 
nesian lime still furnish the celebrated James River cement. 
And that petroleum has been discovered east of the Blue 
Ridge, beyond, per adventure in the coal section near Rich- 
mond. Her Buckingham slate stands without a rival in 
roofing. These all have had official and practical tests. 

"Add to these minerals that have been developed and be- 
lieved to have shown paying quality and quantity, the pyrite 
of Louisa, mica of Amelia, fire clay and ochre of Chester- 
field, gold of the middle counties, baryta, soapstone, lead, 
copper, asbestos, plumbago, kaolin, gypsum, salt, lime, mar- 
ble, lithographic stone, and man}^ others, and Virginia may 
well be proud of her mineral wealth ! 



74 VIRGINIA, 

"The stone of Virginia — granite, soapstone, marble and 
sandstone — are being more extensively developed and regu- 
larly worked than ever before, and the manufacture of brick 
in all qualities, tiles, drain-pipes, etc., is becoming a large in- 
dustry. 

" Manufactures of wood, iron and tobacco still hold their 
prominence, and are followed by man}- smaller manufactures 
attracting attention. 

" Manufactures of wool are increasing, and fine woollen 
goods from Charlottesville, Bedford City and Buena Vista 
are well known in the markets of the Union, while smaller 
factories are springmg up." 

M ANUFACTU RES . 

The number of furnaces for smelting the various ores is 
phenomenal, and as much as fifty millions of dollars have been 
invested, mainly brought in from outside of the State. 

Railroads are being projected and built into sections where 
the richness and proximity of difi'erent ores and an abundance 
of fuel promise the cheapest product, and double the amount 
already invested can and will be invested in these mines. 

Works for the manufacture of metals are beginning to fol- 
low in the track of these furnaces, and towns like Roanoke, 
Buena Vista, Pulaski City, Radford and others demonstrate 
the advantage of such manufactures by their extraordinary 
life and growth. 

There is remarkable activity in the gold belt. 

Five 3'ears ago Pennsylvania and Maryland had a monopoly 
of the fire-brick trade of Virginia, and buff brick and vitri- 
fied brick came from the Northwest. Now Chesterfield and 
Rockbridge supply much of the former and Sm3'th and Pow- 
hatan are prepared to compete for the latter. 

MINERAL WATERS. 

Virginia has long since been celebrated for its mineral 
springs, some of which rank with those found at the most 



VIRGINIA. 75 

noted resorts in the world. The number is yearly being 
added to, and each season brings large crowds from the 
State itself, who, with those who come from far and near, 
till up every place in the search for pleasure or health. 

TIMBER . 

Virginia has extensive forests of pine, white or hemlock, 
spruce or yew, 3'ellow pine and oldfield pine : thirteen vari- 
eties of oaks, besides cypress, cedar, locust, chestnut, hick- 
ory, juniper, poplar, cucumber, gums, maple, walnut, cherry, 
sycamore, beech, birch, persimmon, ash, cottonwood, mul- 
berry. These all grow large enough for timber, and there 
are several distinct varieties of them, giving to the State 
more than thirt}' different valuable timbers. In some sec- 
tions walnut, cherr}^ poplar, pine, ash, gum, oak and chest- 
nut attain an immense diameter and height. Many smaller 
varieties are valuable for furniture and ornamental work. 

The Dismal swamp can supply the country with gum, 
cypress and pine for a hundred years to come : Middle Vir- 
ginia and Piedmont, with pine, oak, chestnut, hickory and 
locust ; while Appalachia, the Valley and Blue Ridge have 
the finest and largest poplar, walnut, cherry, beech, birch, 
cedar and ash in the whole country. The Valley has long 
been famous for its wagon timber, whilst immense quantities 
of poplar, walnut and cherry go by rail from Appalachia to 
Northern markets. 

In the last few 3'ears large cargoes of timber have been 
shipped from our ports. The lumber trade of Norfolk alone 
amounts to $5,000,000 annually. 

AGRICULTURE. 

The agricultural products are varied and abundant. All 
plants that grow in any part of the temperate zone flourish 
here. . Across the State there is an isothermal line : south 
of this line plants that come to perfection in the tropical re- 



76 VIRGINIA. 

gions yield fairly well — i. e., the fig, pomegranate and olive 
among the fruits, and cotton, peanuts and yams come to per- 
fection. There is another isothermal line on the mountain 
side, several thousand feet above the level of the sea, beyond 
which the frost never comes. Above this line the produc- 
tions belong to the extreme North Temperate zone, and here 
rye, buckwheat, cabbage, turnips and potatoes attain their 
perfection. Between these two extremes may be found all 
the plants that belong to the Temperate zone. Commodore 
Maury says • that " everything that can be cultivated in 
France, Germany and England may be grown here equally 
as well, with other things, such as Indian corn, cotton, to- 
bacco, peanuts, broom corn, sweet potatoes, etc., which are 
not known as staples there." The JSfational Re^iihlican 
(newspaper) says : " The soil of Virginia is as varied as the 
colors of a crazy quilt : Parts of it produce wheat equal to 
Dakota, corn equal to Illinois, potatoes equal to New York, 
cotton equal to Georgia, while its tobacco is the best made." 
This description is verified. The Commissioner of Agri- 
culture of Virginia, in his reports from 1888 (made yearly) 
to 1892, makes the following comparisons: 

Dakota reports for 1891, wheat average, ... 16 bushels per acre. 

Highest field yield, 27 " " 

Average, 1892, 12 " " 

Highest yield, 19 " " 

Virginia in 1889 reported three counties with highest 

field yield of 50 " 

Eighteen counties, . . . . . . . 40 " " 

Twenty-nine counties, .... from 25 to 30 " " 

Eleven counties report many instances of a yield of 

over 100 " " 

Of corn, and a majority of the counties report field 

yields exceeding 50 " " 

There are authentic yields of potatoes of over . 400 " " 

And individual crops of over 10,000 " " 

Of cotton, Southampton county reported as the 

highest yield 2,300 pounds per acre. 

And the census of 1880 gives the product of cotton 

in eight counties at 19,598 bales. 



VIRGINIA. 77 

Every variety of tobacco can be grown in Virginia, of the 
finest quality, with the greatest yield per acre. 
f^There are many instances in which men of moderate means 
have, with the net proceeds of one year's crop, not only 
supported their households, but paid the entire price for the 
land. There are other well-established instances in which 
the entire price of the land has been paid from the net pro- 
ceeds of a crop of tobacco made from the land. 

Trucking in some sections, especiall}^ in Tidewater, has 
been exceedingly profitable, and there are thousands of acres 
of the peculiar land known as "trucking land"' that can be 
bought at very low prices. There are authentic instances of 
from three to five paying crops being made from the same 
land in one year. From a thirty-acre farm the owner sold 
$15,000 worth of vegetables in one vear ; from three and 
four-sevenths (3 4-7) acres the owner sold over $1,700 worth 
of vegetables in one year. Another year's crop consisted of 
kale, which brought $250 per acre, which was followed by 
the Irish potato crop, which brought $225 per acre, and 
closing with a crop of corn planted the 20th of June, bring- 
ing twenty-five bushels per acre. From one and a quarter 
(li) acres of this land the owner sold $6,201 worth of pro- 
duce in the five years beginning with 1883 and ending with 
1887. Evidence of these facts, after deducting freight and 
commissions, can be found in the office of the State Com- 
missioner of Agriculture of Virginia. 

It is difficult to convince a stranger of these facts when he 
comes from a country where the annual rent of such land, 
with no better surroundings, is as great as the fee-simple 
price of Virginia lands. These lands are intrinsicallv cheaper 
than any public lands subject to entry anywhere, and with 
the advantages oflfered for trade, education and the comforts 
of a family, as a place for making a home, they are cheaper 
and better than any lands in the world. 

There are manufactories, mills, shops and stores in every 
county, mainly in the cities, towns and villages, and they 



78 VIRGINIA. 

are fast embracing the utilization of every product of the 
State used, from canneries and dairies to furnaces and cot- 
ton mills, and the products of their works in cotton, wool, 
iron, zinc, lead, wood, tobacco, fruit and vegetables are not 
excelled in the Union. 

The oTowth of the cities and towns of the State is marked, 
and her grand trunk lines of railroads and navigable rivers, 
leading' to the largest, safest and most magnificent harbor in 
the world, surrounded b}' ever}- appliance for trade and 
commerce, insure a rapid settlement around this wonderful 
" haven for ships.'' 

The navigable waters of Virginia afford ingress and egress 
to the commerce of the world. At Norfolk and at Newport 
News, Lambert's Point and Hampton Roads can float the 
combined navies of the world. In May, 1893, war vessels 
of great dimensions, representing many foreign countries, 
rendezvoused at Hampton Roads, and the leviathans of the 
sea can lay close up to the wharves at Newport News. 

At Richmond, the beautiful capital of Virginia, on the 
historic James, can be daily seen large passenger and freight 
steamers from New York, Boston, Philadelphia and else- 
where in the United States, and sailing vessels from across 
the mighty deep, and West Point, on the York river, alike 
affords a safe and commodious harbor for the largest ships. 
Alexandria, Fredericksburg and Petersburg have lines of 
steamers and carry on a considerable trade b}' sailing crafts. 

The whole State has fine facilities for transportation for 
freight and travel by rail and water, and there is every indi- 
cation of an increase in railroads and steamboat lines as 
well as marked improvement in the turnpikes and county 
roads. Capital, to any amount, can find a safe investment 
in the mining of every metal, in the working up of every 
wood, great and small, known to the Temperate zone, as 
well as in every manufacture of the products of the field and 
of the orchard. 




J 



VIRGINIA. 79 

FISH AND OYSTERS. 

The rivers and creeks of Virginia are tilled with excellent 
fish, varying in kind and qualit3% Irom the mountains to the 
sea. In our tide-waters oysters and other shell-fish are 
abundant, and are excelled in no part of the world. Our 
people are becoming interested in the propagation and culti- 
vation of fish and oysters, and while it is now quite a large 
industrv, we have reason to believe that it is increasinsr and in 
a short time will become the greatest of Virginia's industries. 

Oyster lands, suitable for cultivation, are rented b}^ the 
State to its citizens at one ($i ) dollar per acre. These lands 
are unsurpassed for this business, and it is believed that the 
cultivation of oysters wall become a source of immense profit 
to those who take advantage of the present opportunity to 
secure these lands. The area of oyster lands controlled by 
the State is estimated to be from a million to a million and a 
half acres. 

GAME. 

Many of the counties of Virginia are full of deer, and the 
pheasant, sora, partridge, "old hare," wild ducks, geese 
and turkeys are in abundance in many sections. 

EDUCATION. 

No State has better educational facilities than Virmnia. 
All persons between five and twentv-one years of age who 
are residents of the State have a right to attend our schools, 
free of tuition. 

The number of pupils enrolled in our public schools for the 

present year was 342,720 

7,795 
6,595 

,12,763,637 
11,636,982 



The number of teachers was .... 
The number of schoolhouses in use was 
The value of school property is . . . 
The cost of the school system for the year was 



The school money is distributed among the counties and 
cities on the basis of the school population. 



8o VIRGINIA. 

STATE INSTITUTIONS FOR HIGHER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 

University of Virginia, Charlottesville. 

Virginia Military Institute, Lexington. 

Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, Blacks- 
burg, Montgomery county, Va. 

State Female Normal School, Farmville, Prince Edward 
county, Va. 

Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, Petersburg, Va. 
(For colored students of both sexes.) 

College of William and Mary, and State Normal School, 
Williamsburg, Va. 

Institution for the Education of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, 
Staunton, Va. 

Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 

Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, 
Va. (For colored students of both sexes.) 

The State appropriated for the fiscal year beginning Sep- 
tember 30, 1892, the sum of $159,750 for the support of the 
above-named institutions. 

There are various other schools and colleges of high re- 
pute in various portions of the State for the education of the 
youth of this country. Their names are not given here be- 
cause we are speaking, in this paper, of those institutions 
which belong to the State. The others, above referred to, 
belong to different churches and charitable organizations of 
every creed, and all of them deserve high commendation, 
but the limited space given to this article will not allow us 
to refer to them except in a general way. 

RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE. 

Virginia was first to declare for religiovis libert}'. In no 
State in the great Union of Commonwealths is there a better 
regard of religious observances or a more general church- 
going people than in Virginia. The spires of churches of 
all denominations, and of both white and colored races, 
tower up in almost countless numbers in our cities, and in 



VIRGINIA. Ol 

the counties at almost every cross-road and in every neigh- 
borhood can be seen churches, wherein every Sunday, and 
on other days, the crowds that attend worship are evidences 
of the fact of religious liberty ; for in these temples, dedi- 
cated to the God of all the people, can be found those who 
think as thev choose about religion and worship as they 
please, with none to make them afraid. The Virginia peo- 
ple are God serving, 

OUR PUBLIC DEBT. 

This important question, which has been giving us trouble 
for manv vears, is now settled to the entire satisfaction of our 
creditors, and meets wnth the approval of our people. With 
the present low assessment on our propert}^ we can pay the 
interest and support the government and keep up our schools. 
The tax amounts to forty cents on $ioo value of property, 
which is as low as that imposed in most of the States. With 
an increasing population and wealth, this will in all proba- 
bility be reduced in a few years to a rate of taxation as low 
as that which can be found in any State of the Union. 

NEEDS. 

Virginia, like most of the old slave-holding States, lan- 
guishes under a burden growing out of the ownership of 
large tracts of lands by persons who have neither labor nor 
capital sufficient to cultivate them. All over the State these 
large plantations are growing up in pine and brush. With 
all the accompaniment of a cultivated and refined society, 
with conveniences for agriculture and trade, our people are 
kept down bv paying taxes on over 15,000,000 acres of 
arable land, which, not being cultivated, brings in nothing, 
and is rapidlv being taken up by pine and other wild growths. 
Every vear adds to the cost of reclaiming and improving. 
To remedv this, at least 10,000,000 acres of land, not inclu- 
ding homesteads, ought to be sold ( 18,000,000 would be 
better) to immigrants who are able to purchase, and who 



82 VIRGINIA. 

would also stock and cultivate the land after having bought 
it. Viririnia wants men who want homes for themselves 
and families ; it needs population : it requires good men — 
steady, industrious, law-abiding men — with their families. 

IMMIGRATION. 

A good class of immigrants would introduce small indus- 
tries into the villages and thickly-settled portions of the 
State. These industries should be suited to the families of 
men of small means, who find it necessary to have their 
children, if not their wives, earn something away from home. 
Virginia cannot afford to exchange her population for that 
of any other land or country. With capital there could not 
be found anvwhere better farmers, planters, orchardists and 
truckers than the present agricultural population ; nor better 
miners and manufacturers than she already has. But with- 
out complaint or mourning for the cause, her agriculturists 
and planters find themselves with large tracts of valuable 
land, which they cannot utilize, and they do not wish to sell 
their homes, but such parts as they are unable to cultivate 
for want of means, and their taxation is a burden. 

CONCLUSION. 

With this statement of facts concerning Virginia, showing 
the inducements she offers to immigrants, we invite all good 
and law-abiding people from the various States of the Union, 
and from the various countries of the world, to come and 
make their homes with us and to share with us our advan- 
tages of government, education, of soil and climate, and all 
the blessings which have been vouchsafed to our Common- 
wealth, and bring with you your families, your friends and 
your household goods, and you will receive a cordial wel- 
come from our people and from our government. 

P. W. McKlNNEY, 

Governor of ]^irginia. 



I TRRARY OF CONGRESS 

HI 

014 442 268 5 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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